Recipe Fri Jun 26 2009
I smelled roasted garlic perfuming the air on my bicycle ride home today as I passed an Italian restaurant. Perhaps the hot and balmy weather intensified the aroma. I stopped of for some garlic and went to my kitchen.
Sautéed, minced garlic goes brilliantly with pesto mixed into any kind of pasta. But I used fiocchetti - a type of pasta that, because of its small size, leaves more surface area to soak up sauce. I was fortunate that a few friends brought this pesto by for me last weekend. It was creamy and soft, with a rich oily basil flavor, which I'd been previously enjoying on bread. The pesto was, above all other ingredients, the star.
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Mon Jun 22 2009
I came across this amazing peanut butter cookie recipe a few weeks ago while on the hunt for something new, and these don't disappoint: the recipe, which yields only a few dozen (or did I eat all the dough before it had a chance to hit the oven?) is a heavenly glob of sugared peanut butter--crispy, chewy, fluffy, transcendent. The crisscrossing of the cookie surface in this recipe is meant to be a skull and crossbones-esqe warning to outsiders, as in "get off my cookies, or I'll cut you." I was going to take a picture of the baked product, but I just didn't have enough restraint to grab my camera. Step one is admitting you have a problem, folks.
Recipe after the jump!
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— Robyn Nisi /
Dessert Fri May 29 2009
If you're like me (meaning, you have little to no self control when it comes to sweets), you've been guilty of making an emergency run to Whole Foods not for organic wheat germ or Acai berries, but for one of the way-inappropriately sized Carol's Cookies sold in their bakery. (Toffee Crunch is my fave.) Recently, I learned Carol's has been making these half-pound beauties in the Chicago area since 1979 - the year of my birth. Coincidence? I think not.
To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Carol's recently put out a call asking loyal fans to submit ideas for the company's next cookie flavor. (Yes, the winners get free cookies. Stick with me here.) To participate, visit Carol's Web site or join the new Facebook fan page, "Carol's Cookies Giant Cookie Club." The contest starts June 1 and runs through Aug. 12, 2009.
After reviewing all entries, Carol's bakers will select the top five flavors and spend four weeks perfecting the recipes at the Carol's cookie factory. The five finalists' recipes will be judged on Sept. 15, 2009, at the Carol's factory by Carol Goldman (yes, the Carol), and foodies Katrina Markoff of Vosges Haut-Chocolat, Marc Shulman of Eli's Cheesecake, Bryant Keil of Potbelly's Sandwich Works, and restaurant critic Sherman Kaplan from WBBM AM 780 radio.
The winner will receive a year's supply of free cookies, as well as virtual applause from the online universe. Oh, and the champ also gets to be guest baker for two days at Carol's Cookies Highland Park bakery. The runners-up even get some cookie dough. So what more can I say, people: Cookie it up!
— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Tue May 12 2009
Last Sunday before that precipitous temperature drop, we did our first backyard grilling of the season. The main fare was the classic burger, but as we usually do, we threw some vegetables on the grill for later use. (We learned last year that this is a simple step that makes the following week's meals quite tasty--and easy, since these vegetables are only a step or two away from a finished dish.) Among eggplants (for baba ganoush) and Poblano peppers (which we had in this morning's scrambled eggs) were two yams.
I came home this evening and made a salad with the two yams. Simply dressed with good vinegar, olive oil and a teeny bit of salt, the yams were fantastic. Slow-cooking on the grill intensified their sweetness, while adding a great deal of smoky goodness to their beautiful orange flesh. Ginger and scallions provided a refreshing counter point, both in terms of the tangy flavors and crunchy texture; the floral flagrance of the Champagne vinegar lifted up the whole dish. Try it the next time you fire up your grill--you won't regret it!
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— Yu Kizawa /
Recipe Mon May 04 2009
I decided to make my second foray into Nigella Lawson's clementine cake, as it seems to be popular and well, I've eaten a boatload of clementines each day as I've clutched tightly to their brief springtime appearance at the grocery store. I don't want to get sick of them before the crop fades away for the year. Clementines baked into a cake means that I can get my daily sugar fix and feel mildly healthy for having eaten a fruit-based, gluten-free dessert. Mildly.
The first step involves boiling 4 to 5 clems for two hours. the first time I did this, I ignored the project and watched television in another room. I later disovered that the smell of burnt clementines is awful. This time, I circled the stove like a hawk.
Allow me a brief product shout-out: my new best kitchen friend is the Cuisinart SmartStick Hand Blender, which is a godsend when it comes to pureeing soups and making smoothies, but an even better asset when I was griding almonds for this cake, as well as mashing the cooled, boiled fruit.
The product? A very flavorful, spongy cake that has an air of being served at a formal tea party or reception. The boiling brings out the tangier, sharper side of the fruit's flavor, which gets a mild tempering by the small (one cup) amount of white sugar that accompanies the clementines, as well as the grainy texture of the ground almonds. Highly recommended.
— Robyn Nisi /
Recipe Mon Apr 27 2009
Polenta goes brilliantly with spinach. Think of it as thick porridge. You can make it extra savory by cooking cornmeal in salted vegetable stock instead of simple water. I had thought it would take 4 cups of liquid to 1 cup of cornmeal for the polenta, but an extra cup of water was needed to soften it up and take the grittiness out. A few friends and I were sautéing onion, shallot, garlic, crimini mushrooms and jalapeño until tender, and then added that to the polenta once the polenta was soft, finishing with golden pan-fried crispy tempeh and spinach.
To get the polenta going, bring the stock to boil, slowly whisk in cornmeal, reduce the heat to simmer, and cover until soft. Stir when the cornmeal sticks to the pan, which will happen more frequently toward the end. If the stock absorbs before the cornmeal finishes softening, add a bit of water. We added our sauté at the end.
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Mon Apr 13 2009
Yesterday was a day of meeting for meat--the Easter Ham. I was fortunate to be at the home of friends who made Nigella Lawson's Ham in Cola. There was something gratifying and strange about pouring a two-liter of cola over a ham and shoving it into the oven. While its sugary, caramel flavor wasn't incredibly noticeable, I still thought it complemented the ham well.
Today is a day for hurried trips to your local grocery to witness and indulge in the 50-75% off sale/retail carnage of pastel candy and chocolate bunnies, but it's also a day to get creative with the leftovers from yesterday.
Ham - if you saved the ham bone, here's a split pea soup; or perhaps you just need to go beyond the 40 ham sandwiches you plan to eat this week and make a casserole.
Carrots - I turned a bag of raw carrots into an awesome batch of potage de crecy, a pureed carrot/rice soup with a kicky political angle that I mixed up a bit by using a tablespoon of freshly grated ginger and substituting a handful of green onions for the standard kind.
Potatoes - If you have leftover raw potatoes, I'm going to try to turn you onto a popular dish from a restaurant in my hometown that turns a spud into a flavorful work of art--behold the potato casserole.
— Robyn Nisi /
Recipe Thu Apr 09 2009
This year, why not forgo the store-bought kits and dye your own Easter eggs? It's easy and can produce beautiful results. This Curbly video will teach you to use natural dyes like red cabbage, coffee and turmeric. Using similar ingredients, the District Domestic breaks down tips for red, purple, blue and yellow eggs. If you are only making Easter eggs for grown ups who won't be hunting them, Chinese tea eggs can be a beautiful and flavorful addition to a holiday brunch. TeamSugar has the instructions.
(Image: Flickr member -luz- licensed under Creative Commons.)
— Gemma Petrie /
Recipe Fri Apr 03 2009
Each year of my life I have come to appreciate and incorporate new foods into my diet. This past year my two most appreciated new foods have probably been brussel sprouts and KALE! I love kale, and you should too.
Kale lends itself to many culinary creations. Some that I have experimented with include kale, sweet potato and red pepper frittata; kale with olives and Romano cheese; kale sautéed in olive oil with lemon, garlic and salt; kale peanut stew... Any Internet search of kale recipes is guaranteed to provide abundant inspiration. Recipe searching is one of my favorite break time activities at work. Yesterday, in between data analyses and e-mail bantering, I discovered "Sweet Pepper Pasta Toss with Kale".
Modifications I made included the following. I probably quadrupled the amount of kale that the recipe called for. Greens are deceptive. If you only use a cup of fresh kale, you may be left with a tablespoon in your finished product. Don't be afraid of stuffing the pan full--they will cook down (putting a lid on the pan aids in the process). I also increased the amount of all spices. I find that a pinch is never enough. Finally, I did not have feta cheese or farfalle pasta in the kitchen. Missing ingredients do not mean one must drop the recipe. Instead, I used whole-wheat penne giving the dish a heartier feel. In the place of feta, I used goat cheese, which melted nicely into the veggies creating a creamier consistency. This meal could also easily be done cheese-less for any vegan or cholesterol conscious person. As a finishing touch I drizzled half of a lemon into the mixture giving a nice balance to the cayenne pepper. The meal only took an hour from start to finish (including washing the dishes).
Pictures were taken, but unfortunately the low-quality camera I bought in China does not do it justice. The bright green kale, red and yellow peppers, white pockets of goat cheese and whole wheat pasta mixed in a bright blue bowl not only enticed the taste buds, but also the eyes. Good food is art. And art need not be complicated. This meal is simple, beautiful and delicious. Look out for kale at farmers and produce markets and create some art!
— Jessica Gingold /
Recipe Thu Apr 02 2009
I'm enticed by the classic images of sausage and egg English muffin sandwiches. I see them on fast food billboards and in the glass cases of a certain ubiquitous coffee shop chain. I think of a soft, tender egg patty and a savory, spicy sausage. But I don't eat them. Instead, I channel the temptation into inspiration to make vegan versions - a tender tofu scramble patty and a spicy chorizo-style seitan patty, with soft avocado and hummus spread inside a toasted English muffin.
Dan from Upton's Naturals, which makes sausage and chorizo-style seitan, had emailed me instructions on how to form their seitan into patties. Grind the seitan in a meat grinder, food processor, or blender, he told me, and then mix in an egg-replacer or a mixture of cornstarch and water, plus oil, a must. "If you wanted to get really fancy you could also try xanthan gum." I went to work with my food processor, Upton's nicely spiced chorizo-style seitan, olive oil, and cornstarch and water. The seitan patties were slightly fragile, but still held together quite well after forming them with my hands. Make the tofu patties using a tofu scram recipe (recipe halfway down), increasing the amount of sauce or reducing the amount of tofu, if needed, to help the tofu stick together into patties. Heat both types of patties on a hot, oiled griddle or pan until toasty on both sides. A few minutes before they are done, toast the English muffins on your griddle or in your toaster.
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— Chris Brunn /
Looking for a delicious way to use up that sack of potatoes you bought for Saint Patrick's Day? Mark Bittman comes to the rescue with an ingenious recipe for potato gratin that takes about 30 minutes to cook rather than the typical 75 minutes. The potatoes are poached in milk or cream before baking (I used whole milk with great success).
— Gemma Petrie /
Recipe Tue Mar 17 2009
Just because I've been awful at writing the One Good Meal column doesn't mean I've lost interest in food, just time to cook and document and experiment. So I was delighted today to come across this link on Time Out Chicago's website where they share secret recipes from some of the greatest restaraunts in the city. And many of these recipes are for things that I love eating and have sworn I would try to duplicate at home. I know I'll be trying to make Hopleaf's Belgian-Style Mussels and we'll be comparing our barbecue brisket recipe with Smoque's recipe. Now to just find time to go grocery shopping, let alone cook. What are you most interested in trying?
— Cinnamon Cooper /
Review Wed Mar 04 2009
One of my colleague is a venerable veteran of bread making, with more than 20 years under his belt, during which time, rumor goes, he hasn't bought a single loaf of bread. Since I discovered the fun of bread making (and also the fact that he was a closet bread maker), we've been spending good ten minutes every Monday morning discussing what we'd done in the bread department in the preceding weekend. And we steal a few minutes here and there during the week, too, talking about bread. During a recent chat, he told me about an improbable bread recipe he saw on PBS. He called it "Jacques Pépin's pot bread."
"I just don't see how it can be any good," my colleagues added, "it defies all that I know about bread."
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— Yu Kizawa /
When I wrote about a series of wacky, high-end tofu from Japan, one of you asked me for tofu recipes. I hesitate to call them recipes because they're so simple, only involving some chopping, sprinkling, and a nominal amount of heating, but here they are, my favorite recipes for good tofu, along with some basic handling tips. Caution: Unless the tofu is very good in itself (i.e., ton of sweet, earthy soy flavor as well as a pleasing mouth feel) , these recipes probably won't dazzle you. Get the absolute best tofu you can for these. H Mart in Niles has very good fresh tofu (I love their silken tofu) made on site; Mitsuwa has those weird ones I wrote about. Your local Asian market may have fresh tofu, made in independent factories nearby.
First, the tofu primers. Tofu is extremely perishable. Unless it's in a light-proof, airtight container, use it within a day or two of purchase. (And if it is in a light-proof, airtight containers like those House tofu that survive outside of the fridge for months, it probably doesn't taste that great anyway.)
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— Yu Kizawa /
Recipe Sat Feb 21 2009
Winter is usually not considered a salad season, but when the radiator's cranking out too much heat and there's too little moisture in the air, a bowl of salad is a welcome thing. And when tender greens and ripe tomatoes are off vacationing in Florida, good old cabbage is always around for us chilly Chicagoans.
This salad takes two winter produce: cabbage and yuzu. Yuzu is a Japanese citrus fruit that I've been obsessed with for the past few years. (I hated their unique aroma when I was a child--children have no taste!) It being a citrus fruit, yuzu's season is winter. Cabbage is around all year, but they survive well into the cold season. Winter cabbage is on the tough side, perhaps more adapted to soups and stews, so in this recipe, the cabbage is blanched. Blanching gives it a slightly different texture to the cabbage from, say, salted-and-squeezed variety, and it's also a good way to incorporate a large amount of veggies into your diet.
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— Yu Kizawa /
Recipe Sat Feb 21 2009
I love when I can combine two of my favorite ingredients to make something delicious. I was playing around with My Recipe Box on the Food Network Web site a couple of weeks ago and came across a recipe for Lemon Ricotta Cookies. The combo of the two intrigued me - lemon cookies are my favorite and I love cheese. The recipe was surprisingly easy and the cookies turned out great (despite my tendency to over-bake the dough). Not too sweet and almost cake-like, I'll definitely be making these again.
— Kaitlin Olson /
Recipe Fri Feb 20 2009
You choke when you make it. It's like pulling hard off a cigarette when you've never smoked before. You're dry roasting the skins and the seeds of dried chilies in a hot fry pan, and they're perfuming the air with a near invisible smoke that just makes you choke. As much as you might try to hold back, the chilies hit you so hard at the back of the throat. It burns, and you cough hard over and over, until it subsides just long enough for you to have a sip of beer. And then it starts up again and you're laughing because somehow it feels good, and you know it's going to make a mean meal.
My pal Bill had been in the kitchen with me. You "use a lot of chili and roast them until you can't breath," he recapped, as we ate the thick, heavy mole, breaking a few sweats. Our feet were even hot - but my apartment is very warm from some overanxious radiators. "This is some bold flavor," he told me.
We started out wondering what to make with the broccoli and cauliflower Bill had brought over. He wanted something spicy, and I had plenty of dried chilies hanging out in my cupboards, just waiting for an opportunity like this. I cracked open six or seven of the chilies, separating the seeds from the dried, hard skins. We toasted the seeds in a large, dry stainless pan on medium heat until they nearly blackened, tossing them about nearly constantly, and choking with every shake of the pan. Then I sent the seeds into a blender to wait, and the skins went into the same, now empty pan and began to smoke to make you cough some more. I tossed them about until their vapors had subsided. Then those, too, went into the blender to cool. I toasted a handful of black sesame seeds for a moment in that pan, and then a handful of raw sunflower seeds until they looked golden, before putting them in the blender, too. I waited until everything was cool before blending to avoid the explosion of hot liquid that I've been trying to avoid repeating from some previous cooking session. (I'd thought I could hold the lid on, but you should never underestimate the power of even a small amount of scalding liquid when it's being tossed about by a very fast and powerful sharp metal blade). I added a tablespoon or so of unsweetened cocoa powder (thanks Bill!), a pinch of ground cinnamon, a few good glugs of olive oil, many shakes of salt, and just enough water to make it barely possible to blend it into a thick paste. The mole, our version of mole, was done.
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— Chris Brunn /
Feature Thu Feb 19 2009
I love beignets. This may not seem strange on the face of things. Beignets are delicious. They are tiny bits (scraps, lumps, balls... pick a shape, it'll work) of fried dough, most traditionally sweet and dusted with a heavy mantle of powdered sugar -- though occasionally, exotically savory and flavored with meat or fish. A French-inflected fried pastry particularly popular in New Orleans, the beignet is as much an American doughnut as a Krispy Kreme or Dunkin variety. Or the paczki.
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— Andie Thomalla /
Recipe Thu Feb 19 2009
I love onions. I enjoy sautéing them and I definitely enjoy eating them. They were the base for the red sauce for my bow tie pasta dinner Tuesday night, and they came onto my stove again last night for an aromatic olive oil sauté of mushrooms, seitan and kale. Seitan and shiitake mushrooms add a nice chew, kale a complex texture, and the rosemary and white wine a nice fragrance.
Here's how to duplicate what you see developing in the photo. Sauté the leaves of a few stalks of fresh rosemary, roughly chopped. Meanwhile, boil water for pasta. When the rosemary is just starting to become a bit crispy, throw in one diced onion, salt, and sauté until tender and translucent on medium heat. Deglaze with a few brief pours of any leftover white wine you might have (or red wine, water or stock) to loosen up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan - especially useful if you're cooking with stainless steel. Then toss in half a package of chorizo style seitan. The wine flavor infuses into everything as it evaporates. When the pan goes dry again, stir in a few handfuls of rough chopped shiitake mushrooms and a few more splashes of wine. When the pasta water is hot, drop in dried pasta. When the mushrooms are tender, add a bit of ripped up kale, stems removed. If the pan is dry and bits are sticking, add some more wine. Keep the heat on just until the greens have wilted. Mix the sauté into your pasta when the pasta is done, per package instructions.
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Wed Feb 18 2009
Vodka sauces must love tomatoes and cream. The three go well together for a simple pasta dish, but they also inspire me to drop the vodka and just make a creamy red sauce for my linguini or bow ties. Actually, I drop the cream, too, and add something else to lighten and pinken the color of the red sauce, something that will round out the tomato flavor. Tahini can work, but its bitterness must often be balanced with the likes of lemon or vinegar. Hummus is the real magician. It may sound odd, but it mellows out a red sauce quite well without being at all heavy, plus it's vegan, which is, of course, why I'm posting about it.
My roomie sautéed onions and garlic in olive oil to kick off the sauce for our dinner before we added seitan chorizo and a large can of tomatoes. Our tomatoes were unsalted, and since tomatoes love salt, we salted until the sauce tasted full like any pasta sauce should. The sauce simmered to thicken up, and I mixed in a few spoonfuls of spicy hummus as my roomie added her dried hot chili powder to liven it up. Just a few minutes before the pasta was done - following package instructions - some broccoli florets went in, finely chopped to speed the cooking, and then spinach leaves when only about a minute was left on the clock.
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Wed Feb 18 2009
I had a recent urge to create some stuffed and deep-fried olives. And I knew one of the people eating them was vegan so I decided to stuff some of them with some Soyrizo instead of andouille sausage. But I wasn't sure how to get the great breading on the olives without first dipping them in egg. When deep-frying it is generally best to dip the item lightly in flour, then dip them in a beaten egg, and then dip them in breadcrumbs or other similar item for crisping. You dip them in flour so the egg will stick better and you dip them in egg so the crumbs will stick better. It's a real "she ate a spider to catch the fly" kind of thing.
I began my experiment by making sure my crumbs were vegan, thankfully they were. (A couple of handfuls of potato chips that are crushed super-extra fine make a great coating if you can't find vegan breadcrumbs.) But then I wanted something that had the consistency of egg, with some stickiness, but not a lot of flavor that would conflict with either the fake sausage or the olive. As I stood looking in my refrigerator, I spied my carton of unflavored soymilk when I decided to try heating it gently in a small pan and whisking in some cornstarch. I put a teaspoon of cornstarch in a small bowl, add a couple tablespoons of cold soy milk and whisked it gently until all of the lumps were removed. This is called a slurry. I then added a cup of soymilk to a saucepan over medium-low heat. I watched the milk and just when it seemed like it was close to starting to boil, I slowly poured in the slurry while whisking. I didn't want the soymilk to boil (because I was worried about it separating) so I kept stirring and stirring and after about 8-10 minutes the sauce started to have the viscosity and thickness of a couple of whipped eggs. I let the mixture cool so I could dip my hands in it and I proceeded to flour, dip, and coat some more olives. And it worked great.
In fact, it worked so much better than the egg. As it cooled it got slightly thicker and the the thickness really ended up glueing the crumbs to the fairly slick surface of the olives. It worked so well, that I think I'll have to make another batch. This time I'll take pictures before I get excited and eat them all.
— Cinnamon Cooper /
Recipe Wed Feb 11 2009
The dosa is a South Indian crêpe made from a fermented batter of ground rice and lentils. It's often brilliantly crispy on the edges, tender further in, and may be stuffed with soft potato pieces, onion and spices. It may also be served plain or accompanied by another stuffing. Tonight, however, was a night of limited leftovers. With a partial tub of dosa batter from Patel Brothers on Devon in my refrigerator, but nothing else prepared from anywhere near the same subcontinent, I deviated from what usually fills a dosa. I reheated tofu scramble from an old favorite recipe of mine, adding some vegan chorizo at the end. Two of my favorite brands are Upton's Naturals and Melissa's Soyrizo. The soft center of the dosas went quite well with the gentle and rich flavor of the tofu scram.
— Chris Brunn /
Blog Fri Feb 06 2009
My pal Bill and I made this pasta the other night and the leftovers were perfect for a quick supper when I came home later that week. I added another tomato, sautéing it in some olive oil before adding in the leftover pasta. For a little punch, I mixed in a sundried tomato and Kalamata olive tapenade leftover from another night, Candle Cafe's recipe. This would be a perfect recipe to reheat in a hot pan before going out with your friends for the evening.
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Tue Feb 03 2009
Sometimes assembling dinner is just as fun as making it from scratch. Manwich sloppy joe sauce can be, perhaps unexpectedly, made into vegan sloppy joes by using a product such as Morningstar's crumbles instead of ground beef. That was just what a friend had in mind when he had me over for such a dinner, complete with tater tots, hamburger buns warmed on his griddle, and a beer. We finished with a dessert of Trader Joe's Joe Joe's sandwich cookies in a bowl with some rich and creamy chocolate pudding that another friend had brought. That's an easy vegan dinner in a few minutes, leaving plenty of time to sit and chat.
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Thu Jan 29 2009
Here's a quick way to turn ordinary plain tofu into a dirty and deeply spicy, heavily seasoned and juicy dish. Pan fry square-cut pieces of tofu in plenty of hot oil, thick hot sauce, and then when they're halfway cooked and have darkened on one side, splash on soy sauce for a rich, salty goodness.
I started the whole thing off sautéing slices of quartered onions until they softened with a diced green chili from Wiki Wiki Market. I doused in plenty of oil, enough to cover the slices of the two chopped onions, on top of which I carefully put down my tofu squares. I nearly blanketed the pan with Co-op Image's hot sauce, which I like for its thick spiciness and localness. After a few minutes on medium to high heat, the sauce had thickened on top of the tofu. A quick flip of the squares seared in it. The hot pan was now a thick mess of onions and darkened tofu, which a good dousing of low-salt soy sauce quickly infused into.
This dish turned out to remind me of an old roommate's pan-cooked tofu: well seasoned and spicy. The tofu cubes should be thin, so the flavor can quickly absorb and allow a very succulent feel all the way through. They can be a bit wide, say an inch and a half square, just not thick. I like to start by cutting my one-pound block of Mu Tofu into thin sheets, say half to one-quarter inch thick, and then stack those surfaces to cut them into cubes.
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Fri Jan 23 2009
This is a recipe that popped into existence on a recent weeknight, when I came home ravenous. I had to eat right away; otherwise, I wasn't sure how long I would be able to restrain myself from gnawing on our cat's head. (Not really, but I was pretty hungry.)
I (literally) tore up the watercress in my bare hands and opened a tin of smoked octopus while the penne happily boiled away in salted water. Once the pasta was done, I drained them, then tossed in the watercress and octopus. The idea was to let the watercress wilt a little, still preserving some crunchyness, with the heat of the pasta; it worked quite nicely. For seasoning, I sprinkled the whole thing with yuzu juice, plenty of fine garlic powder, olive oil and a pinch of salt. It was pretty good--the smokyness of the octopus, refreshing spicy tang from the watercress, and the yuzu juice blended together quite nicely--but it lacked depth.
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— Yu Kizawa /
Feature Fri Jan 23 2009
This year, I returned from my family's Christmas bearing a cooler full of individually butcher-paper wrapped and black-stamped parcels, in addition to my more traditional gifts.
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— Andie Thomalla /
Recipe Mon Jan 19 2009
On Tuesday, Barack Obama will sit down to his inaugural luncheon, a tradition that dates back to 1897. And what a decadent celebration it will be. "One nutrition writer tallies the feast's calorie count at 3,048 and notes that the spread contains 142 grams of fat," reports the Washington Post.
When Arlington-based Design Cuisine was hired to cater this three-course meal, they were asked to make it "reminiscent of the Lincoln era."
The menu includes:
Seafood Stew
Pheasant and Duck with Sour Cherry Chutney and Molasses Sweet Potatoes
Apple Cinnamon Sponge Cake
For those interested in learning more about the luncheon, the government has set up a website for you. You can read about the gifts that Obama and Biden have received, the china that will be used for the meal, the flowers that will decorate the tables -- and best of all -- you can even download the recipes for this presidential meal.
— Gemma Petrie /
Recipe Fri Jan 16 2009
One of my favorite books as a kid was a Laura Ingalls Wilder-penned cookbook that paired food-centered excerpts from her books with historically accurate recipes that were chock full of ingredients that I had never seen or knowingly consumed--particularly lard, currants, and molasses.
One recipe that I never tried was a molasses candy made by pouring a boiling concoction into pans of freshly collected snow, letting it harden, and scraping it up. It sounded interesting, but I was nine years old and my mother would have been furious if I had tried making this candy. I found what I think is a decent reproduction of the recipe. We got plenty of snow, so consider trying it this weekend.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Recipe Sun Jan 11 2009
My friend and neighbor Rose walked across our hall to lend me a cookbook that her mother was the testing editor for years ago, Vegetarian Creations, and I simply had to try its recipe for savory crepes, or as the book puts it, "entrée" crepes. The crepes cooked up soft and tender, while somehow at the same time, embodying a substantial texture that easily gave way on each bite to the filling they were wrapped around. The seitan chorizo and tofu scram inside was robust, tantalizing, and nurturing - the kind of taste that you "never want to end," according to my friend and also neighbor Jessica, who arrived on the scene to try them, and who I later called in search of these words to describe the filling.
I blended the first three ingredients, as the book suggested: 1 3/4 cup milk (soy milk in my case), 1 tablespoon melted butter or oil (oil worked just fine), and 1/4 cup mashed tofu (drained). I used a food processor, but you could probably use a blender just as easily because the mixture doesn't get incredibly thick. When blended smooth, I added in 1 cup all purpose flour (the book calls for whole wheat pastry flour, which I'm curious to try and compare), 1/3 cup nutritional yeast, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. As instructed, I let the batter sit for at least one hour in the refrigerator.
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Sat Jan 03 2009
If the current economic crisis has left you feeling nostalgic for that other Great Depression, why not try making a mystery surprise cake from a vintage 1930's recipe? The surprise is the tomato soup which goes in just before baking and gives the cake that certain je ne sais quoi while keeping costs down. In all honesty, the tomato flavor is imperceptible; the generous quantities of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg are what dominate, making it taste like your typical spice cake. Unfortunately, after a few days, the cake does dry out quite a bit. Luckily, the ooey gooey cream cheese frosting more than makes up for it.
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— Dana Currier /
Recipe Thu Dec 25 2008
For my final recipe, I'm sharing my Mom's sugar cookies. Since it's Christmas, I'm sure most of you are no longer baking cookies, but you can make these any time of the year. Like many of the other recipes I've shared, these aren't too sweet and they are pretty simple to make. They also freeze well. Enjoy!
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— Kaitlin Olson /
Recipe Wed Dec 24 2008
Incase you're not sick of cookies yet, here's another recipe. This one is from my Grandma and it's pretty great - very similar to Rice Krispie Bars and really easy to make.
Wreaths
- 30 marshmallows
- 1/2 t. vanilla
- 3 1/2 c. Corn Flakes
- 1/2 t. green food coloring
- 3/4 stick butter
Heat marshmallows, food coloring, vanilla and butter; pour over Corn Flakes. Wet hands in cold water and shape into wreaths, place on wax paper. Decorate with red hot candies.
— Kaitlin Olson /
Recipe Mon Dec 22 2008
Fattigmann is another Norwegian recipe and translates to "Poor Man's Cakes." A little time consuming, the dough deep fried and coated with powder sugar. These addictive cookies are a favorite in my family!
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— Kaitlin Olson /
Recipe Sun Dec 21 2008
Rice pudding is a pretty common dessert - the recipe I have is the best I've found but what makes it special to me is the almond. Every Christmas, my Aunt brings rice pudding and puts a single almond in it. This Norwegian tradition says that the person who finds the almond will have good luck for the new year.
Rice Pudding
- 1 cup rice
- 1 quart milk
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- vanilla
- cinnamon
Boil one cup of rice in water for five minutes, drain and add some milk. Let the rice absorb the milk and add the remainder. In a separate bowl, mix sugar and eggs. Add a small amount of the hot rice to egg and sugar mixture and stir. Pour mixture into the bowl of hot rice and mix. Add vanilla and cinnamon to taste.
— Kaitlin Olson /
Recipe Fri Dec 19 2008
Not really much of a story behind this recipe, I just like fudge and this is a fantastic recipe. Enjoy!
Fudge
Line 9x13 pan with parchment paper. Place ingredients below in large glass mixing bowl:
2 packages chocolate chips
2 sticks of butter
2 cups of walnuts (optional)
2 T. vanilla
Place ingredients below in large sauce pan:
4 1/2 c. sugar
1 large can of Carnation evaporated milk (1 2/3 cups)
Bring sugar and milk to a rolling boil. Cook for six minutes, stirring constantly to avoid burning. Pour ingredients over items in bowl and stir until melted. Pour into pan and cool thoroughly before cutting.
— Kaitlin Olson /
Recipe Thu Dec 18 2008
This recipe comes from my Great Grandma and is my favorite Christmas cookie, hands down. The Norwegian waffle cookie is very popular in Norway and among Norwegian immigrant descendants in the Midwest. Krumkake is made with a two-sided iron griddle; my mom still uses her Grandma's griddle and while it's falling apart, it has a beautiful design that transfers to the cookie and it still works perfectly. My mom and I make these cookies together every year. It's easier if you have two people baking because after the cookie comes off the griddle they need to be rolled immediately and the process goes much quicker with an extra person.
I prefer to eat the cookie plain, with a cup of coffee (or without). In Germany, the cookie is often filled with whipped cream or raspberry compote; I've also used it as an ice cream cone. Krumkake is very thin and (usually) hollow in the middle so they can be a bit awkward to eat - but that's half the fun.
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— Kaitlin Olson /
Recipe Wed Dec 17 2008
A couple of days ago, I wrote about the Cockburn's Culinary Competition, where Kendall College students created meals using port wine. You might think, That's all fine and dandy, but how do I recreate this winning pork belly dish? Find the winning recipe--including proper plating instructions--after the jump.
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— Jill Jaracz /
Recipe Wed Dec 17 2008
Like the hotdish recipes I shared last month, this is another very Minnesotan recipe. Look in any church or company cookbook from Minnesota and you'll find multiple Jell-O salads. Typically, I don't like Jell-O but this salad is the exception (the cream cheese helps dilute some of the slimy texture of the Jell-O).
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— Kaitlin Olson /
Recipe Tue Dec 16 2008
This Danish recipe comes from my aunt and while I'm positive this is normally a summer dessert, my family always makes it during the holidays. Rodgrod med flode translates to red berry sauce with cream, we call it fruit soup. Another easy recipe, this is a nice (and healthier) alternative to traditional desserts.
Fruit Soup
1 ½ lb. fresh strawberries
1 ½ lb. fresh cherries
2 T. sugar
1 T. minute tapioca (add an extra teaspoon if you end up with three cups of puree)
¼ c. water
½ c. cream
Wash and pit cherries, drain washed fruit. Puree fruit in blender, this should make about 2 1/3 - 3 cups of puree. Soak tapioca in puree and cook with sugar and water in saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until boiling and remove from heat. Chill for two hours, serve with pitcher of cream.
— Kaitlin Olson /
Recipe Mon Dec 15 2008
Many of us know how well peanut butter and chocolate combine. Here's something a little different in case you've already had enough holiday cookies. I was just about jet off to Phoenix for a few days of hiking about in the Grand Canyon and wanted something homemade to eat. My backpack was about to be filled with trail mix, Clif bars and a few just-add-water dried camp meals. My brother, Jon, turned me on to an Energy Ball recipe from Christine and Tim Conners' book, Lipsmackin' Vegetarian Backpackin'. The recipe is much easier to follow then it is to keep the balls in from smashing together in a zip top bag. I ate most of mine in a hotel room at the top of the rim before hiking down. Luckily, after many hours of hiking-induced snack cravings, Jon traded me a few of his for some of my chocolaty, heavy on the raisins, trail mix.
Following the Conners' recipe, I mixed 1 cup peanut butter (I used natural peanut butter), 1/2 cup quick oats, and 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used tiny chips, instead of the crushed chips they suggested). I formed small balls with my hands, and rolled them in 1/2 cup coconut flakes to pick up a nice outer coating. I used unsweetened coconut, but they suggested sweetened, I presume to add a nice sweet taste to the outside. I might try a sprinkle of sugar next time since I often already have unsweetened on hand for Indian cooking. They call for it to make 16 balls, but I guessed it and didn't count. I might follow my brother's lead next time, and put them in a sturdy Nalegene food storage container to keep them in their original shape.
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Mon Dec 15 2008
I'm not sure why, but I only make Nut Roll during the holidays. There's nothing that screams Christmas about this recipe, so maybe it's because I bake more during this time of year. Either way, this is my favorite bread recipe. It has that great homemade bread taste with swirls of sugar and walnuts to add just the right amount of sweetness. This one is also from my Grandma and takes a bit of time (and patience) to make but don't let that dissuade you - the effort is definitely worth it. The loaves also freeze well, so if you go overboard and make more than you need, wrap it up and stick it in the freezer. I like it served warm with butter best, but it's also good cold.
Continue reading this entry »
— Kaitlin Olson /
Drink Mon Dec 15 2008
Baby, it's cold outside -- but that doesn't mean we must suffer. River North spot mk warms up customers with free hot toddies every time the temperature dips below 20 degrees. I'd say tonight qualifies.
Here's the recipe:
1½ oz. whiskey
1 oz. honey
1/3 oz. lemon
3 oz. African amber tea
Coat the bottom of a mug or an Irish coffee glass with honey. Then add whiskey and lemon juice. Boil water and add the tea bag to make hot tea. Pour the steaming tea into the glass and stir.
Commence thawing!
— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Sun Dec 14 2008
I came across these at a holiday party and wanted to make off with the entire tray. Take a date, split lengthwise on one side, open it up (like a book), smear a small dollop of spiced molasses (i.e. molasses with cinnamon and cloves added to taste) over the center, and place a cube of crystallized ginger in the center, close the date and harpoon with a toothpick. This gussied-up date is far more flavorful than anything you're going to find on the dessert table, and it's a fraction of the calories.
— Robyn Nisi /
Recipe Sun Dec 14 2008
My Dad used to make homemade hot chocolate for me when I was a little girl. This recipe is from my Grandma - it's quick and easy and tastes so much better than any instant hot chocolate. I like to add a little cinnamon to the cocoa mixture to give it a little extra flavor. It's also great with a shot of peppermint or raspberry liquor. With or without the extras, be sure to top with lots of marshmallows or whipped cream.
5 T. Sugar
1/2 T. Cocoa
1/4 C. Water
Mix sugar and cocoa, add water and mix. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until sugar and cocoa are dissolved. Add milk (as much as you'd like, depending on how rich you want it) and heat until warm.
— Kaitlin Olson /
Recipe Sat Dec 13 2008
If you want a warm, fragrant oatmeal for a cold winter day, here you go. Days had passed since I first started thinking about what to do with the coconut milk leftover from my coffee cake. Blending it with frozen bananas and soy milk for a shake had come to mind, but before I could buy bananas and wait for summer, Vella Cafe had inspired me. I got my usual tasty brunch there this morning - spicy tofu scram with chopped tender poblanos and soy chorizo - but took quite a notice to their menu's mention of oatmeal prepared with coconut milk. After brunch at Vella, I made myself a mid-afternoon snack at home - coconut oatmeal.
For one serving, boil 1/2 cup quick oats with 1 cup water, one handful of raisins, a dash of salt, and if you have it, a shake of ground cardamom for a nice slightly floral fragrance. Cardamom and coconut are old friends, too. Heat on medium until the mixture becomes thick and tender, stirring often. (You can use old fashioned oats, instead of quick oats; you'll just need to cook them much longer). Stir in four large spoonfuls of coconut milk, about 1/4 cup, and sugar to taste and round out the coconut. Keep it on the burner until it's all warm through. Top with pistachios and coconut flakes if you've got some. Eat up and warm your belly for winter.
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Sat Dec 13 2008
This recipe was always my favorite growing up. Not as sophisticated as the Red Velvet Cake, but just as good. This is a fun cookie to make with little kids - I have great memories of making these with my mom when I was younger.
Now, these cookies are still one of my favorites, but for different reasons. Buttery, not too sweet and a hint of mint make these the perfect cookie to eat with a big mug of hot chocolate (recipe coming tomorrow).
Continue reading this entry »
— Kaitlin Olson /
Recipe Thu Dec 11 2008
With just two weeks left until Christmas and in the midst of the busiest party season of the year, I wanted to share some of my favorite holiday recipes. With all of the celebrations, I know I get tired of bringing the same dish every single time. So if you're looking to mix it up a bit, I wanted to share some recipes that are sure to be a hit with your family and friends.
As I began looking through my recipes, I realized there were about 10 too many for a single blog post. So, instead I'm going to give you my version of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Throughout the next two weeks I will post 12 new holiday recipes. Eat, share and eat some more - 'tis the season.
The first recipe I'm going to share is a holiday classic. Passed down from my Great Grandma, this recipe for Red Velvet Cake is pretty easy and guests love it.
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— Kaitlin Olson /
Recipe Wed Dec 10 2008
I lived in Thailand for five years when I was a child. I was too young to remember too much, but one thing that has stuck with me ever since is the taste and smell of the Thai food. After our family moved back to rural Japan where we came from, everyone in our family craved Thai food horribly. There wasn't a single Thai restaurant in the city we lived in, and when my mom ran out of the packets of curry paste, a big bottle of fish sauce and bags of dried Pad Thai noodles she smuggled back from Bangkok, we just had to hunker down and wait for the uncertain opportunity for the next Thai feast. Which, of course, did not materialize for a long time. My mom and I developed a habit of looking for Thai restaurants when we visited my grandmother's house in Tokyo during school breaks, but visits were few and far between. My hunger for Thai food gradually faded. When we moved to Chicago about 15 years later in 2003, I didn't even think about all the Thai restaurants that must be around.
As it turned out, I discovered the abundance of Thai restaurants in good time, but the real surprise came when I realized that Thai ingredients are as readily available as there were restaurants. Around Argyle and Broadway, every other grocery store seemed to carry canned curry pastes, blocks of tamarind pulp, funny-shaped galangals, stalks of lemon grass, and even fermented tiny shrimps (kapi) that gives the distinctive pungent punch to many a Thai dishes. After I encountered one too many bowls of overly sweet Tom Yum Kun in restaurants, I decided to make one myself. (Tom Yum Kun, sour and spicy broth with shrimp, is supposed to be absolutely firely hot. When I dealt with the real stuff as a seven-year-old, I could only sip it carefully from a spoon. A big gulp probably would have costed me ten minutes of couging heaves.)
In my first try, I made it from scratch, using fresh lemon grass, kaffir leaf, etc. However, as is too often the case with exotic cuisines that aren't really a part of my everyday repertoire, I didn't know what to do with the remaining ingredients. I watched them darken and wither in the refrigerator with a stinging sense of guilt. So when I discovered a convenient jar of Tom Yum paste at the Tai Nam Market on Broadway, I was quite happy. Sure, the paste will be a little bit less fresh-tasting, but it'll keep longer in the fridge, and I won't have to go out to buy all the ingredients when I'm suddenly in the mood for Tom Yum Kun. (And it's a great bonus when the weather is nasty and there's an inch of slick snow-sleet coating on the streets.) To my delight, the particular Tom Yum paste I picked up, bearing "Lee Brand" was surprisingly fresh- and clean-tasting for a ready-made paste. And it's pretty versatile. I've used it for Tom Yum Kun soup, of course, but I've also used it in stir-fried noodles with a good result.
(Curry recipe using this paste after the break)
Continue reading this entry »
— Yu Kizawa /
Recipe Mon Dec 08 2008
True, that big meal of poultry, cranberries, sweet potatoes, stuffing etc. happened only a week and a half ago, but some of us may be ready for another go-round, especially if some of us had our Thanksgiving dinner at a friend's house and were not able to partake in any of the leftovers. Feeling deprived, I decided to recreate the meal, sort of, this past Sunday evening. I didn't cook a 20-lb. turkey or make umpteen side dishes; instead I focused on the conjuring up the spirit of the meal by cooking a whole bird (chicken, instead of turkey), making cranberry sauce, and preparing simple, roasted sweet potatoes.
Continue reading this entry »
— Dana Currier /
Drink Thu Dec 04 2008
Dale Degroff is often credited with bringing fresh ingredients back to the art of cocktails. While bartending at Manhattan's Rainbow Room, Degroff stripped their drinks of mixes and artificial ingredients and brought back honest cocktails long forgotten in the states.
Degroff recently visited Chicago to promote his new book, The Essential Cocktail: The Art of Mixing Perfect Drinks. The local launch party was held at the highly appropriate Violet Hour and served five of Degroff's drinks: the East India, the Manhattan East, the Original Manhattan, the Monkey Gland, and the Cosmopolitan.
The Essential Cocktail is a definitive book with hundreds of recipes, variations, and drink histories. Best of all, the book boasts 150 full-color photographs -- a detail that is often missing from other cocktail books.
Degroff was recently a guest on the Rachel Maddow Show, where she admitted to being an "amateur, low-level, hobbyist bartender" (swoon). Degroff shared a brief history of the American cocktail and the recipe for his version of the East India. See the recipe after the jump.
Continue reading this entry »
— Gemma Petrie /
Recipe Wed Dec 03 2008
If it's snowing out, chances are you'll find me in my kitchen cooking my favorite comfort dishes. Chief among them for me at this time of year: kimchi chigae (sometimes "jjigae"), the spicy, garlicky, fizzily fermented Korean kimchi-beef stew.
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— Mike Doyle /
Recipe Thu Nov 20 2008
Here's to anyone wondering what to serve those vegan friends you might have over for Thanksgiving.
• Heidi Swanson has posted a collection of what I am sure are solid recipes, from Thai-spiced Pumpkin Soup and Hazelnut & Chard Ravioli Salad to Cornmeal Crunch and Maple Grilled Tempeh. Even if a single vegan meal isn't in your future, her tantalizing photos of the food are worth checking out.
• VeganYumYum has lovely everyday recipes, which you could surely appropriate for Thanksgiving, with a vast collection of brilliant photos - especially their Deconstructed Green Bean Casserole.
• Post Punk Kitchen's Isa Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero chime in with tips to accomidating vegans on a traditional dinner table.
• Black Book and Chicago Tribune both plug the Chicago Diner in their lists of where to eat out on Thanksgiving.
• In my notes last year, I picked vegan options from the pages of Bon Appetit.
• VegCooking has recipes, including a tempting one that uses puff pastry sheets.
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Tue Nov 18 2008
In other soup news ...
My husband and I wanted something for dinner Sunday night that would take the sting out of those first snowflakes - and we didn't want to run to the store for ingredients. So we whipped up this zesty roasted red pepper and tomato soup in less than 15 minutes, using ingredients straight from our pantry.
Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup
2 garlic cloves, smashed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 28 oz. can tomatoes in juice (If using seasoned canned tomatoes, adjust additional seasoning to taste)
1 jar roasted red peppers, rinsed and drained (unmarinated work better in this recipe)
16 oz. vegetable broth
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup heavy cream
In a large Dutch oven or stock pot, heat oil with the garlic cloves until fragrant. Using a slotted spoon, remove garlic before it begins to brown. Add tomatoes, peppers and broth to the pot and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for five minutes. Stir in Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, and sherry vinegar, and remove pot from heat. Blend until smooth, preferably with an immersion blender. (If you use a traditional blender, blend the soup in batches, covering the cap with a towel to prevent hot soup from splashing back at you.) Once the soup is blended, stir in the cream, then taste it. If it needs salt and pepper, you can add it now.
We garnished our bowls of soup with a bit of leftover pasta and a spoonful of pesto. This soup also would taste great with grilled cheese.
— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Tue Nov 18 2008
Here's a good, quick tofu scram for you to fry up in a pan or on a griddle. They key is to cook it golden. And the key to that is a hot, oiled pan, preferably cast iron or well-oiled stainless steel. Seeds add a nice crunch to contrast the soft tofu.
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Sun Nov 16 2008
Here's my first try at rasam, a spicy, well-seasoned and lusciously savory tomato soup from South India. I distilled the instructions below from the notes that my South Indian friend Vidya had emailed me. I was amped to try my own after loving Udupi Palace's version of rasam that's spicy enough to make me hiccup. First, boil three tomatoes, each cut into four pieces (I deviated by also adding a few cherry tomatoes here), with four green chilies (I used one long red one instead tonight), four cloves of garlic (I had minced them with salt into a paste - my modification), and 500 ml of water (about half of a quart) for ten minutes.
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— Chris Brunn /
As nightly frosts settle in, even the heartiest herbs will have trouble surviving. No gardener wants to see their hard work die out, but there is only so much mint a household can go through sometimes.
A quick way to preserve herbs before they succumb to the elements is to freeze them. This preservation method works particularly well with herbs that have a high water content like chives, mint, and basil.
Cut and clean the leaves under cold water, discarding stems. Take a few empty ice cube trays and place bunches of leaves in the bottom of each slot. Fill with enough water to cover the herbs and place in the freezer. When the cubes are frozen through, transfer to sealed bags.
The leaves will be limp when defrostred, but freezing retains more flavor and aroma than drying leaves. The cubes are also convenient for dropping in soups or using in drinks.
— Gemma Petrie /
Recipe Tue Nov 11 2008
Hearty Boys Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh recently hosted a mixer at their studio space in boystown. Sponsored by KitchenAid, with plenty of product integration love (the event was titled, "Kitchenaid Mixer" -- get it??) and jovial namedropping by the Boys (the "product placement sock puppets" of the evening), the event combined cooking demonstrations and a KitchenAid giveaway -- both whole, glowing stand mixer and party favors of blessedly non-mechanized kitchen tools...like a melon baller -- with plenty of champagne and snacks. Not the worst way to spend a rainy Thursday evening.
Smith and McDonagh will be familiar to Food Network watchers thanks to winning the eponymous reality show a few years back. The only openly gay couple with a dedicated TV show, they now film their Food Network show in a kitchen/TV-studio in Boystown, an experience Smith sums up as an "open bar, knives, and no insurance." In addition to making the studio space available for private events, the Boys also have a few other upcoming public events, some of which you can check out here, if you're inclined to spend an evening with an open bar, knives, and well, you get the picture. Check out a great recipe for entertaining from the last shindig after the fold (and trust me, a combination of this much cheese and butter is worth reading on).
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— Andie Thomalla /
Recipe Fri Nov 07 2008
Here's tonight's seared spicy tofu on top of sautéed onions and garlic, over penne pasta that was tossed with peanut oil, freshly ground black pepper, and a good shake of salt. Briefly sautéed broccoli crowns and greens round off the outside. Ideally, this would be served in the shallow well of pasta plates.
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— Chris Brunn /
If summer cooking, with its green and grillable flavors, is like the culinary equivalent of baseball, then autumn cooking's linebacker-like cream sauces and hefty casseroles make it the football of the food world. With the days getting colder and the nights longer, the season is clearly underway. And with the November issue of Gourmet on the stands, we're already looking into the post-season excitement of the Thanksgiving table. One recipe that stood out to me (i.e. delicious and fairly simple) was the Poblano Potato Gratin, a more Latin take on the traditional creamy starch dish. And with a few substitutions from Green City Market just before they head inside for the winter and some vendors just go into hibernation until the spring, I was rewarded with a great dish perfect for heating up and staying warm on a chilly evening.
Ancho chiles from Green Acres Farm stood in for the poblanos called for in the recipe. (Making it actually an Ancho Potato Gratin, I guess, but who's counting.) Not quite as fruity in their roasted flavor as poblanos, they still had added a distinctive heat to the dish, and mellowed into spicy carmelized sweetness after baking in the oven. I also subbed in Kennebec potatoes from Nichols Farm and Orchard for the Yukon Golds. Kennebecs have white flesh and break down a little more than Yukons would in thin slices, but added nicely to the creaminess of the overall dish. I also noticed Nichols carries poblano peppers, after I'd already picked out my anchos, and they have a wide variety of other potatoes as well if you prefer to stick to the original playbook.
— Andie Thomalla /
Recipe Thu Oct 23 2008
You can add VeganYumYum's recipe for delicata squash bisque to your list of reasons to take full advantage of the fall's squash season. It's a fun recipe to prepare with friends, so I invited a few over for a dinner of it. We deviated a bit, including using roasted and salted cashews, because I love the rich taste you don't get from raw ones, and using an immersion blender to blend the bisque straight away in the pot. We made chutney with tart apples, taking tamarind from my Tamilian Indian cookbook - and all of the ingredients from an online recipe, minus the allspice, just a small touch of the red wine vinegar, and three apples instead of two. We sautéed the hearty, narrow leafy green that is spigariello with some super fresh and powerfully spicy arugula - the spigariello first with onions and garlic as it takes some time to cook - and salted to taste. Finally, we each took to VeganYumYum's cashew cream, drizzling it over the bisque in our own personal ways.
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Sun Oct 19 2008
No sooner than I was off a plane from India, I wanted my kitchen smelling like her food. A certain chowdery, gravy-like or soupy vegetable mix came with many of my meals in India. I thought this dish, sambar, would be iconic enough a starting point to get serious about Indian cooking at home in Chicago. I emailed a friend from the South Indian city of Mangalore for help. She came through with wonderful step-by-step photos and detailed written instructions.
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Think of the recipe in three key parts: cook chopped vegetables, cook toor dal (split yellow pigeon peas), and make a masala (a mixture of spices). The following sambar is the popular type in and around Mangalore. The masala involves grinding coconut into a mix of fried spices. The vegetable can be of any type, but the commonly kinds, as my friend wrote, are potato with onion, drumstick, lady finger (okra), tomato, pumpkin, brinjal (eggplant), ash gourd, and Mangalore cucumber." The preparation may vary a bit as need to accommodate different vegetables. I thought it'd be fun to substitute farmers’ market sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes) for potatoes. Their smooth, earthy and starchy flavor might add a nice depth. Similarly, I made three leeks stand in place of the onions. The leeks have a smooth and gentle flavor to their sharper onion relative.
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Sun Oct 05 2008
Autumn is my favorite time of year. Not only for the crisp weather and beautiful colors, but for the food. Let's be honest, mostly for the food. I was digging through my family recipes today and came across my Grandma's recipe for pumpkin pie - honestly the best I've ever had. This might be because of the memories I have of making it with her and my mom more times than I can count (we're already making baking plans for Thanksgiving this year). Despite my ties to this recipe, I really do stand by its amazing flavor, light texture and buttery pie crust. It might seem a little early in the year for pumpkin pie, but for me it's never too early.
Pumpkin Chiffon Pie
3 eggs, divided
1 cup sugar, reserve 1/2 cup for meringue
1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. cold water
1 envelope Knox gelatin
Add sugar, pumpkin, milk, salt and spices to slightly beaten eggs yolks (save egg whites); mix in top of double boiler (over boiling water) and cook until thickened. Soften gelatin in cold water and add to hot pumpkin mixture, remove from heat and cool. While pumpkin mixture is cooling, beat egg whites until fairly stiff and gradually add reserved sugar. When mixture is cool, fold in egg whites. Pour into baked pie shell (completely cooled), cover and chill over night. If you want to go the extra mile and make the pie crust, continue reading.
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— Kaitlin Olson /
Drink Thu Sep 25 2008
I hosted a potluck at my place for Drive-Thru's fabulous writers on Tuesday night, and I needed a quick, fall-inspired, non-alcoholic beverage to supplement the bottles of wine others planned to bring. I got inspiration at - where else? - my local corner store.
I bought a gallon of apple cider and mixed it with a two-liter bottle of ginger ale in a very large pitcher. Then, just for a little bit of fancy, I simmered two cinnamon sticks and some star anise in a homemade simple syrup of water, sugar, and a few spoonfuls of honey. I added the cooled syrup to the pitcher, mixed, and served the sweet and spicy sipper over ice.
Yu suggested I punch up the ginger flavor next time by simmering some fresh grated ginger root with the simple syrup.
— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Mon Sep 22 2008
I'm a big fan of baking tasty vegan treats, especially when I have a friend helping. Or doing much of the work when I'm brewing up coffee. Meleah had picked out the recipe for the almond fingers we were about to make. And since I am a big fan of her peanut butter cookies, I asked that we take this opportunity for her to show me how to make them. I remembered their savory, brittle, and deep rich flavor from the many times she has given them to me. 
Meleah's peanut butter cookie recipe comes modified from Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker's Joy of Cooking. The original recipe is on page 709 in Meleah's copy, a fact that she seems to tell me from memory. Meleah is not vegan, but she sees no reason not to bake vegan. It keeps her from needing a trip to the store for eggs, she tells me. Plus, her box of egg replacer powder lasts quite a long time. In went the egg replacer powder (mixed with water as instructed on its box) instead of the one egg that Rombauer and Becker call for. Non-dairy butter (Earth Balance in this case) went in instead of butter or shortening, plus a drizzle of olive oil for flavor. Substituting olive oil for all of the butter seems to impact a richer and crispy flavor, but, she tells me, the batter is much harder to work with. Oil makes a slippery dough that is tricky to hold together. Based on my samplings of her previous work with olive oil in the cookies, I would be far from complaining. But I'm just along for the ride. Near the end, we added a tablespoon or so of soymilk to free the batter of the last bit of dryness that peeked out when forming the round cookies.
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Mon Sep 22 2008
In honor of tomorrow night's Drive-Thru bodega party staff meeting, tonight I find myself 12-years-old again. For the meeting, we've each been asked to bring a dish made from ingredients found at our local bodega or corner grocery. I live downtown, but my bodega is in my old neighborhood of Logan Square. It's Tianguis. It's the only place I can find real New York-style Goya smoked chorizo. And that, friends, is the star ingredient of the best culinary memory of my childhood: the dish I learned to make before I learned to boil water, my mom's Spanish rice.
Before I became the home cook that I am now, this was my go-to dish. It still is. Every time I make it I remember my mom who passed on in 1996. With each bite I'm a child again, standing net to her at the stove. Actually, her being a Spanish mom, that would be more like me being shooed away from the hot stove for my own good under threat of paleta spanking. Or threatened with same in the morning for having picked all the chorizo out of the leftover rice under overnight cover of darkness.
Either way, it was worth it. I hope you'll think so, too. Here's how it goes:
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— Mike Doyle /
Recipe Fri Sep 19 2008
Figs are big these days. That's because early fall can be counted as the second season for fresh figs (the first being a period of just a few weeks in early summer). Neither season lasts very long, though, so the time to embrace the fig is now. This recipe features the fig in two incarnations: once in a spread, blended with cooked onions and toasted walnuts, and the second time sliced in half and roasted in the oven until the insides become sticky and gooey. The fig's sweetness is tempered by the salty cheese and spicy arugula, which combine to make a fabulous open-faced sandwich that can be cut up small for hors d'oeuvres or eaten whole as a decadent lunch.
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— Dana Currier /
Recipe Tue Sep 16 2008
Sorry. Couldn't resist that one. Plus, in my recent post on canning, I promised you people a sauerkraut recipe.
This very simple method for making homemade 'kraut was passed on to me by a lovely woman named Rachel, who attended my friend Anna's canning party, Here it is, without further assault on the English language.
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— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Fri Sep 12 2008
This is a fantastic squash soup that's fast to make and satisfying to eat. It was born out of a pinch (actually, just a few hours ago). I had to feed myself and my husband (who was under the weather with a nasty cold) with a rather meager supply of food. (Our fridge is definitely ready for the farmers' market tomorrow morning!) Aside from eggs and bacon, all I had were an acorn squash, half an onion, and a handful of peppers from the back porch planter (plus a loaf of bread I picked up on the way). I threw in my favorite spice combo--curry leaves and cumin seeds--from the cupboard, and we had a pretty good meal.
Acorn Squash Soup with Cumin and Curry Leaf
Serves two.
1 small acorn squash, cut into chunks
1/2 onion, chopped
4 anaheim peppers (or whatever mild chili peppers you have at hand), chopped
1 hot green chili, slit in the middle, seeds removed
10-20 curry leaves
2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 tablespoon butter
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— Yu Kizawa /
Recipe Sat Sep 06 2008
Because it's still salad season in these parts, why not try a classic recipe for Salade Nicoise? Julia Child was the first to bring French cuisine to American households, so there's no better source to turn to when it comes to preparing a traditional version of this common salad. Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking is no doubt a little out of date, especially in its ingredients (what exactly is "cooking oil"?), but with a few modifications, the recipes prove they can stand the test of time.
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— Dana Currier /
Recipe Tue Sep 02 2008
I've been in a creative mood lately and eager to try out new recipes--well, not new, but recreations of childhood favorites.
Behold, the Runza:
Its Wikipedia entry defines it the best: "a yeast dough bread pocket with a filling consisting of beef, pork, cabbage or sauerkraut, onions, and seasonings. [Runzas] are baked in various shapes such as a half-moon, rectangle, round (bun), square, or triangle."
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— Robyn Nisi /
Recipe Sat Aug 30 2008
Inspired by all the fresh produce available this time of year, Chicago's food bloggers have posted lots of summery salad recipes lately. And what's a Labor Day picnic without at least three or four different salads?
My Vegetable Blog brings us Vegetarian Nicoise Salad, a tuna-free version featuring a traditional tarragon dressing, minus the anchovies.
Joelen of Joelen's Culinary Adventure rounds up a bunch of salad recipes from her foodie friends, including farmers market-friendly Japanese Cucumber Salad; Cantaloupe, Cucumber and Mint Salad; and White Wine Fruit Salad with Strawberries. She also offers wine pairings to make your barbecue or picnic upscale.
For a smaller gathering, this Warm Peach and Prosciutto Salad with Arugula from Have a Bite would be perfect.
Salad this is not, but I couldn't resist this sharing this post from the folks at Kitchn. If we all scream for ice cream, do we all cheer for ice cream and beer?
— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Tue Aug 26 2008
Bumper crop of cucumbers have you flummoxed? This time of year, it happens to the best of us. One of my favorite ways to use a windfall of cucs or, even better, small Kirby pickles is to throw together a batch of Ohio Quick Pickles. I found this recipe years ago, who knows where, and it's earned a spot in my book of favorites. For some color, add a few carrots, thinly sliced on the bias.
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— Mandy Burrell Booth /
So-called baby artichokes aren't exactly preemies. They're fully mature artichokes that are simply smaller than typical 'chokes sold in stores because farmers harvest them from further down on the stalk, where there is less sun exposure. What's fun about "babies" is that they haven't developed the thistly choke one must avoid when eating larger artichokes.
Nichol's farmstand has been a reliable source of baby artichokes this summer. To serve two people, I'd recommend purchasing four to six babies. Remove two or three outer layers to get to the tender inner leaves, and peel any tough skin from the stalk. Then trim about a half-inch from the tip. I like to slice them in half lengthwise, stuff one half with a quarter of a garlic clove, sprinkle with olive oil, salt, pepper and some torn basil, and then reassemble to make a "whole." Wrap two or three "wholes" in a foil packet and bake for about 20 to 30 minutes at 350.
— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Mon Aug 18 2008
If you're looking for a smooth and fruity cold dessert, mix together some Ciao Bella blood orange sorbetto and Temptation's French vanilla. Let a scoop of each melt together just a bit - until they're a little fluid, easily blending but still quite cold and mostly solid. The vanilla vegan ice cream acts like cream in coffee, mellowing the rich flavor just enough to round it out. Green Grocer hooked me up.
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Wed Aug 13 2008
I don't know why I never thought to make tomato risotto, but once I read the recipe in Gourmet magazine's July issue, I knew it was the first thing I would make with summer's early heirlooms.
The boys at Nichol's Farm provided some big, beautiful Early Girls to star in the show. After coring and skinning the tomatoes, I squeezed out their slightly pulpy juice to spike risotto's typical liquid of choice, chicken stock with saffron. Finely chopped fennel and onion provided savory base flavors. For fluorish, I stirred in luscious, red diced tomato and a bit of freshly grated pecorino romano just before killing the flame. A garnish of torn basil tastes nice, but don't go overboard, or you'll risk masking the sweet, acidic tomato flavor you were after in the first place.
— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Drink Tue Aug 12 2008
After every party we've ever had, we've always had far more of a bottle of cheap gin than we've wanted. I unabashedly admit that I'm a gin snob. Bombay Sapphire is the lowest I'll happily go on the gin scale and since having Hendrick's, I've preferred the less-junipery taste with my tonic, or with my vermouth and olives. But I had about 12 ounces of cheap gin in a large plastic bottle that kept getting in my way. I was tired of moving the jug of rotgut and put it on the counter in plain site where I knew I would have to find a way to deal with it.
I was wishing it was Hendrick's when I remembered that Hendrick's suggests adding a slice of cucumber to your gin and tonic instead of a lime. The clean, crisp, green taste of cucumber is well-matched to the herbal flavor of gin. So I got out a clean quart-sized jar from my cabinet and sliced up a cucumber into 1/4" rounds. I layered the cucumbers in the jar and poured the cheap gin over the cukes.
After sealing it up tightly in the refrigerator for about two weeks, I finally got over my reticence and decided to make myself a gin and tonic. I put some ice in a glass, poured in a shot of gin, added two of the cucumber slices to my glass for garnish and topped it all off with some tonic water. I nervously took a sip and I was in love. The bitterly alcoholic taste was gone from my cheap gin and what I was left with was a tasty cocktail. Now I just need the summer weather to return so I can enjoy my summertime cocktail before it's too cold.
— Cinnamon Cooper /
Recipe Wed Jul 30 2008
This month's issue of one of my favorite magazines Cooking Light features the story of Abby Mandel, who started Chicago's Green City Market in a downtown alley in 1999. Today, the market is "the best sustainable market in the country," according to the Alice Waters.
The story is a good read and includes fun recipes from Mandel, a cookbook author and former syndicated food columnist. Her German Apple Pancake and Albuquerque Corn Salad not only highlight farm fresh ingredients, but also are wholesome and look lovely.
— Mandy Burrell Booth /
In these lean times, I like to brew my own coffee at home to save some change. However, the process can be trickier in the summer when what I really want is iced coffee. Here are some tips I've picked up along the way:
First, the guys at Intelligentsia's Randolph Street location tell me that my brewing method is perfect: I just make a pot of coffee like I always do, nice and strong. They recommend avoiding darker roasts, which don't taste as good on ice.
Once the coffee is ready, I pour a big glass and stick it in the freezer. By the time I'm finished showering, the coffee isn't exactly cold, but it's not piping hot, either. I fill my thermos with ice cubes made from coffee leftover from the previous day, and then pour in my chilled coffee and a spot of half and half.
Lately, I've been sweetening the brew with a homemade almond simple syrup. I bring one-third of a cup of water and one-third of a cup of sugar to a boil, then let it simmer for just a couple of minutes until the sugar dissolves completely. I take the pot off the heat and stir in a bit of almond flavoring to taste.
Incidentally, Intelligentsia's new summer drink, GG's Horchata -- rice milk, espresso, simple syrup and a dash of cinnamon -- is a refreshing change of pace on days when I don't feel like firing up my pot at home.
— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Thu Jul 17 2008
Whenever I step from my air conditioned bedroom in to my steamy hot kitchen, thoughts of cooking often yield to blending shakes before I can stop my hands from dropping slices of frozen bananas into a blender whirling around cold soy milk.
I cannot stress frozen bananas enough. They blend up with soy milk into a thick, cold and smooth shake. The secret to extreme thickness is to drop slices of frozen banana into the loud, roaring monster that is your blender running on a low or medium speed. Pause between every few pieces, waiting for the beast to crunch through the frozen chunks. Then, when the blender's screaming yields to a solid roar, give it another few pieces. Do this until the blender can't take any more, until the shake is so thick you can barely see the liquid pulling into a swirl at the top. (Peel and slice the bananas before freezing them).
Blend all other ingredients with the soy milk before adding the bananas, so that you have a good thorough mix before the bananas thicken it so much that it won't move. Here are some of my favorite combinations:
• Pistachios Cardamom or Chocolate Peanut Butter
• Fresh figs, blended with frozen bananas and soy milk, give off a rich sweetness, with a deep flavor that nothing else quite matches.
• If you can get your hands on some mango avocado sorbet, or perhaps just mango, it goes brilliantly blended with just enough soy milk to make a thick cold slush - no bananas needed.
• And here's something completely different: Lemon Basil Sorbet.
— Chris Brunn /
Giardiniera, the spicy condiment of chopped sport peppers, carrots, olives, cauliflower and celery, all marinated in olive oil, is how Chicagoans add that certain something to Italian beef sandwiches. Ask for a side of giardiniera anywhere outside of Chicago, and you're likely to get a blank stare. In my opinion, it's one of Chicago's best-kept culinary secrets, and I love to experiment with it.
A few mornings ago, I woke up dreaming of giardiniera turkey burgers stuffed with smoked cheddar cheese. Tonight, my dreams came true. My husband and I both agree these are the best burgers I've ever made. Want to try them yourself? Here's how:
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— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Mon Jun 30 2008
As you rev up for your fourth of July barbecues this upcoming weekend, the American Cancer Society wants you to be mindful of some facts about grilling, notably that cooking meat at high temperatures could make you sick--very sick. On the other hand, feel free to add some cherries to your burger patties to ward off any cancer-causing devils that the grilling process produces. Michigan's own Plevalean meats sell cherry-enhanced burger meat, but if you want to take up the task in your own kitchen, here are some easy recipes.
— Robyn Nisi /
Recipe Tue Jun 10 2008
Rhubarb has been in full effect at farmers markets. I like seeing its dark, candy red celery-shaped stalks. They intrigue me as much as their deep green poisonous leaves say stay away. This has made me wonder what to do with rhubarb. Mark Bittman's recipe, Rhubarb Compote with Dates (How to Cook Everything), helped me focus in on a solution. I'd been heating the chopped rhubarb in a hot, dry pan, hoping to sweat its tough stalks into a tender submissive mess of flavor. I'd quickly worried about burning it before it softened enough. Bittman directed me to simmer the chopped stalks in enough water to cover. I poured cold water over the rhubarb already in my pan, not boiling as he'd suggested, and it still worked brilliantly.
I didn't have dates, but did find dried figs that'd been sitting about getting even drier. A day earlier, I had brought them to a boil in water to soften them up, and then let them sit overnight in the fridge. The next morning, I removed their stems, diced them up, and tossed them into the water and chopped rhubarb.
I simmered the fresh, tough stalks into a gentle, creamy compote, mixing in just enough brown sugar to take off the tart of the rhubarb. I poured it over diced fresh strawberries and cereal. Granola would be brilliant, too.
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Sat Jun 07 2008
This is one of many quick, fry-pan meals I've been thinking up on the fly. For the last last several months, I've been using the same system for various dinners. First: a few of the freshest vegetables you can find, sauted in olive or peanut oil, preferably including some sort of leafy green. When the leaves cook, soften and wilt, they tend to melt around everything else in the pan and wrap it all together. Second: a protein, like any cooked bean, tofu, tempeh, seitan or nut. Third: a starch or grain - rice, gnocchi, pasta, a nice bread to serve on the side, or any grain you can think of. Fourth: a savory sauce - something with a decent amount of salt and a nice, full flavor.
Last night, I chose fresh-picked matchstick-thin asparagus with leftover gnocchi, canned cannellini (creamy white kidney) beans, kale and thinly sliced spring onions. Tamari, lemon juice, hot sauce, and a touch of nutritional yeast brought it all together. The bright lemon taste amplifies the freshness of the vegetables, the tamari (or soy sauce) gives much needed salt, the nutritional yeast lends some depth, and the hot sauce adds a touch more sweat on a hot day's forehead to make me feel really alive.
Sauté the spring onions (just the little bulbs, and not their tough greens) in a bit of hot olive oil until they go soft. Add pre-cooked (canned) beans, leftover cooked gnocchi, and 3 or 4-inch lengths of asparagus - each ingredient in about equal amounts by sight. Cook until hot, and then deglaze the plan with enough tamari to make everything just a touch darker. Mix the nutritional yeast in a bowl with lemon juice and hot sauce to dissolve, and then add to the pan. Add the leafy green (chopped kale) last, cook just until wilted, and then serve in bowls.
When I want a heavier meal using the same system, I substitute tahini or natural peanut butter instead of nutritional yeast. Seek out local ingredients whenever convenient. I'm a big fan of the Co-Op Image hot sauce my friend Kerry brought me, from peppers grown in a nearby community garden.
— Chris Brunn /
Through June 3 (yep, that's Tuesday), Whole Foods is selling mussels for just $3 a pound. Hubby and I bought two pounds for dinner tonight (sounds like a lot, but the shells add up to a lot of waste), and prepared them using the Barefoot Contessa's recipe, featuring white wine, shallots and saffron. Killer. So good that we may go back tomorrow while the gettin's good. Bonus: total cooking time, from prep to serve, is about 40 minutes, and cleanup is super easy since everything cooks in one pot. Be sure to grab a baguette to soak up the broth.
— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Wed May 28 2008
According to the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council (yes, there is such a thing), Americans typically consume 7 billion hot dogs between Memorial Day and Labor Day. And while the Chicago dog--in all its poppyseed bun, sport pepper, celery salt glory--is undoubtedly a classic, it's a little...well...old school.
For those who prefer a more done-up-dog, Chicago Tribune's Good Eating challenged five Chicago chefs to revamp the classic hot dog in a way that was unique, yet easy enough for the home cook to replicate. And in true Chicago fashion, you won't find ketchup in any of the recipes.
Charlie Trotter (Charlie Trotter's): Asian Tuna Hot Dog
Rick Bayless (Frontera Grill, Topolobampo): Chi-Mex Hot Dog
Bernie Laskowski (Park Grill): Greek-Style Lamb Hot Dog
Koren Grieveson (Avec): Beef Hot Dogs with Spicy Tomatillo Salsa
Shawn McClain (Spring): Hoisin and Hot Mustard Glazed Tofu Hot Dog with Spicy Kimchi and Cucumber Salad
Not really the cooking type? Check out Hot Doug's, where this week's special is a Chardonnay-Infused Rattlesnake Sausage with Bacon-Garlic Dijonnaise and Mirabo Walnut Cheese ($8).
— Bobbi Bowers /
Recipe Wed May 07 2008
With all this talk about mice and rats having the run of O'Hare, I decided it was a good opportunity to talk about ratatouille, the summery, stewed vegetable dish of French origins ("ratatouille" literally means "toss food"). A colorful mix of peppers, eggplant, zucchini, tomato and spices cooked in a dutch oven, it's a good use of healthy food, and with Farmer's Market season just around the corner (Green City Market kicks off on May 14!), keeping a recipe handy is a good idea; Smitten Kitchen has a nice photo of her delicious-looking ratatouille experiment, and you can find a range of recipes online.
— Robyn Nisi /
Recipe Sun Apr 27 2008
We dry-roasted dried peppers. Vaporized hot pepper hit the back of my throat, in a strength which that part of my body might never have felt before. I've long been a fan of spicy foods, but they usually concentrate their burn in the mouth. Or the nose. Rodney warned me to open windows. I brought in a strong fan. We still couldn't help coughing. It seemed like we used a few dozen dried peppers. That seemed like an awful lot of chilies for this Oaxacan black mole. Did I make a mistake? Did the recipe call for fresh peppers? Fresh weigh more, meaning we'd need to use less. No, the instructions mentioned dried chilies. In the end, the heat of the mole softened and mellowed. With various pepper shells and seeds perfuming the air for some time, perhaps it lost some power. Sure, it was still no friend of the timid. After serving it on flanks of sautéed marinated tofu atop toasted corn tortillas, peppers, carrots and onions, the mole was also a big fan of Meleah's chocolate chip peanut butter cookies – a rich and juicy accomplice to a tender, crumbly cookie that melted perfectly in my mouth. Fill a pastry bag full of this mole, pipe it into chocolate cupcakes, and I'm sure you'll be smiling. Or tearing. Here's the recipe. You might find all of the ingredients at reasonable prices at a neighborhood bodega.
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Thu Apr 24 2008
"I have nothing against butter and cream. But it was exciting and daring to make a vegan béchamel." That's what my friend Ariel told me as she began to explain her lasagna, with a few other modifications. To keep kosher for Passover, she used matzo instead of noodles, and a roux made with ground matzo meal instead of flour. She layered eggplant, soy cheese, béchamel, and matzo crackers, which soften when cooking, especially after covering them with the béchamel.
Ariel found this vegan béchamel recipe, changed it for Passover, and quadrupled it.
First, to make a roux, melt non-dairy butter (Soy Garden or Earth Balance). Ariel told me that she doesn't measure – something I'm a big fan of not doing, too. I think it's often good to know what properties to look for in your cooking, rather then blindly putting in measured amounts. In this case, add enough pulverized matzo meal to make the consistency of a batter. To avoid a gritty sauce, grind the matzo to a powder first.
Continue reading this entry »
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Tue Apr 22 2008
A friend woke up thinking of empanadas this weekend. Luckily for me, we were meeting in my kitchen later. We turned out three versions. Garlic and sautéed-tender kale reminded me of spinach rolls at the Middle Eastern Bakery. We added enough brown sugar to a pumpkin and chickpea filling to make it nearly approach a dessert. Finally, the heat of a spicy soy chorizo-potato filling mellowed in the oven, but left us enough of the deep, heavily seasoned fake pork sausage flavor. Pre-cooked brown rice would stand in quite well for the potatoes, too. Not quite sure how to make the appropriate dough, we searched, and ended up modifying a recipe from about.com, replacing the eggs with tapioca flour to keep vegan. We tried rolling the dough to various thicknesses, but it was best paper-thin, which baked up the crispiest.
Dough
3 cups flour, plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus cold water
2 tablespoons tapioca flour
1 teaspoon vinegar
3 tablespoons non-dairy butter (ex: Earth Balance)
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Mon Apr 21 2008
Should you need more evidence that spring has finally arrived, Chicago’s food blogs have lightened up noticeably in the past couple of weeks, featuring flavors both delicate and zippy, and nary a cream-laden pasta dish in sight.
Have a Bite reminds us – or informs us, as was the case with me – that it’s halibut season, with recipes for two main course fish dishes and several complementary sides.
This cracked wheat salad from My Vegetable Blog is so seasonal, “spring” is in its name.
Pro Bono Baker knows that everyone loves a good broccoli salad, especially when accompanied by adorable pictures of Burmese cats. Frankly, I’m not wild about the concept of radish and buttermilk soup, but maybe you are, eh?
Blue Kitchen has Parisian foods on the brain these days, but not just the stinky-cheese-and-crusty-bread variety. Here’s a spicy shrimp dish sure to make your tastebuds say, “Mon Dieu!”
Now, what to do with all of those leftover bits of halibut, spears of asparagus, and florets of broccoli? Try your own version of the Recipe of the Week, the cleverly named “Clean Out the Fridge” Frittata. Keep this one on file, and you’ll never go hungry (though the worms in your compost bin may be singing the blues.)
That’s all for this week, but please send links to your favorite Chicago food blogs so I can mine them regularly for my Recipe Roundups.
— Mandy Burrell Booth /
There aren't too many diners that I know of that serve as eclectic a menu (PDF) as Glenn's Diner (1820 W. Montrose). Technically, the restaurant is called Glenn's Diner and Seafood House, and they mean it: the place offers breakfast all day, a wide array of sandwiches and salads, homestyle diner dinners like spaghetti and meatballs, and — here's the kicker — more than 16 varieties of fresh fish that on any given day may include mahi mahi, salmon, Alaskan king crab legs, skatewing and shark.
On our recent visit, my husband Brian and I both ordered the $12.95 First Catch Special, available Tuesday through Saturday from 11am to 6pm, and billed on the menu as a half-pound of fresh fish, small salad, cup of soup, roasted red potatoes, and fresh vegetable. We were allowed to select our fish from four or five different options. Brian went with swordfish, and I chose mahi mahi. Despite that his swordfish was slightly overcooked, overall we agreed we got a great deal. The "small" salad is actually quite large, and the "cup" of soup is served in a tall mug. The kitchen substituted potato pancakes for our roasted red potatoes without asking, but we didn't care because the pancakes were crusty on the outside, creamy on the inside, and incredibly flavorful. A large portion of roasted asparagus &mdah; Brian's favorite vegetable — rounded out the plate. There was so much food that I took about half of mine home and made a nice lunch out of it the next day. Needless to say, we had no room for dessert.
We plan to bring my family to Glenn's when they come to town, and Brian already knows what he's going to order: the shrimp po'boy. Me? I'm stuck between the Reuben sandwich and Mediterranean omelet, but either way I'm ordering a side of potato pancakes.
— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Thu Apr 17 2008
I happened to pick up a copy of Glamour magazine yesterday--at a hair salon, of course. And in the front of the mag, it may even have been the letters page, there was a recipe for Engagement Chicken. According to the lore, the recipe has been floating around the Glamour offices for 26 years, and passed from assistant to assistant until each one prances happily down the aisle. A Google search proves that the recipe is indeed legendary; there's a Chowhound message board about it, which reveals the original recipe came from cookbook author Marcella Hazan, specifically from her Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. Other food bloggers wonder if a simple roast chicken is really enough to convince a man to marry, not only because it's a huge and scary commitment, but also because it's not a very sophisticated dish. A lot of single men can probably roast their own chickens. Is the way to a man's heart really a trussed chicken?
— Lori Barrett /
Recipe Sat Apr 05 2008
A friend invited me to her Purim party a few weeks back, and then seemed to chuckle at my interest in making a vegan version of hamantashen. I told her that someone had once made me some very tasty vegan rugelach, a feat perhaps equally surprising. Later she sent me a vegan recipe she'd found for hamantashen. I mixed the dough, chilled it overnight, rolled it out, cut it, dotted with preserves, and tri-folded each piece into a hat. The recipe said to bake for 10 to 12 minutes, but I found myself adding 2 minutes to the kitchen timer more than a few times after 10 minutes. I feared I'd burn the hamantashen, wandering if I should pull them when I saw the slightest hint of golden brown on the edges. I waited another 2 minutes, and then took them out just in time; the bottoms were golden.
Don't skimp on quality preserves, because whatever fruit substance you have really comes through when the dough bakes up like a brilliant shortbread. I used Earth Balance's Buttery Sticks for the non-dairy butter. If I make this again, I might follow another friend's suggestion to add poppy seeds to the dough for a nice crunch.
Here's the recipe.
Update: The morning after I posted this, I took hamantashen dough from my fridge, and went to work on making another batch. It came with me for a picnic on a grassy strip that is part of Chicago’s boulevard system — two parallel columns of green space buffering a few lanes of traffic in front of lovely old homes and apartment buildings, which wind their not exactly contiguous way around Chicago. We set out blankets down and went to work on food and drink on the first glorious weekend of spring.
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Tue Apr 01 2008
Baseball season is upon us, which means hot dog sales are going through the roof! This Pear and Pepper Relish from Pro Bono Baker will have you shouting, “Fukudome!” Or something.
What do you think’s in the burger? You won’t get an actual recipe at Thursday Night Smackdown, but c’mon, do you really need a recipe for a hamburger? What you will get is plenty of inspiration to create your own mini versions of another ballpark favorite, the burger-fry combo.
Barley and amaranth are so last year. According to Hungry Mag, the new grain about town is millet.
Finally, here’s my Recipe Find of the Week (a completely subjective award given to the recipe that sounds more delicious/intriguing/inventive than all the rest): Spicy Sweet Chicken made with maple syrup, chili paste and Chinese five-spice powder, paired with Szechuan Green Beans with Garlic. Thanks, Blue Kitchen.
— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Tue Apr 01 2008
Gapers Block sister site, Rubber Neck, out in L.A., has posted an item about a new health drink being guzzled by the bucketful. The drink, which is said to be even more miraculous for the complexion and the body than Master Cleanse, was created by Estelle Marie, the dietician for Heidi Montag, the glowing and curvaceous character on The Hills on MTV.
"Many people think the changes in my face and my body are from surgery, but the truth is, I owe it all to Estelle's concoction," Montag told Rubber Neck. "Who would have known the combination of coffee and olive juice could change the shape of a nose?"
The recipe is below.
1/2 cup of black coffee
15 drops of Tabasco
1/2 cup of water
5 shakes black pepper
5 shakes salt
In another bowl, or a mortar and pestle if you have one, mash up one fortune cookie (remove fortune first) with 2 tbsp of olive juice
Combine with liquid ingredients, top with red sprinkles and enjoy.
For more information on Estelle's food recommendations, click here.
— Lori Barrett /
Recipe Tue Mar 25 2008
None of these dishes would a meal make – unless, of course, you make them all at once and serve them with a bottle of wine.
For the caviar-haters among us (I’ll admit it; I’m so uncultured), try Beluga lentils instead in this protein-packed crostini recipe featured on My Vegetable blog.
Let’s see. You take a ball of fresh mozzarella, encase it in freshly made bread dough, sprinkle the top with something called Bacon Salt (which I’ll admit, I’ve never tried, but I want some immediately) and bake. I’ll take a baker’s dozen – each served in its own Bacon Bowl. Thanks, Two Bites!
Easter’s over. Purim, too. Still, I’d argue it’s impossible to tire of ethnic bread recipes featuring the prominent use of boiled eggs.
Got duck fat? This roasted potato recipe is for you.
Cap off your finger food feast with a victorious dessert, fork required: chocolate soufflé!
— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Tue Mar 11 2008
Tonight, I suggest you pick up a nice bottle of red wine and invite your friends over for Sunday brunch: this week, local food bloggers are offering up recipes for sophisticated and fast mid-week meals, and comforting weekend breakfasts.
I'll get to the brunch menu in a moment, but first here are two great excuses to buy a bottle (or two) of red: Mushroom and Red Wine Risotto, a nice little vegan number from My Vegetable Blog; and from The Blue Kitchen, a perfect companion dessert pairing red wine and strawberries.
If it's chicken you crave, try this Chicken and Cous Cous Salad from The Knife Sharpener. Cous cous is super fast, and the addition of radishes gives this salad a peppery kick. Cook up extra chicken on Cous Cous Night, and you'll be prepped and ready to whip up Russian Chicken Salad the following night.
Who can resist a mid-week hero? Try this zesty meatball version, compliments of Little Spatula. A simple salad with Italian dressing would make a healthy side.
Did you invite your friends over for Sunday brunch yet? I hope so, because Thursday Night Smackdown (a blog from New Jersey, written by a friend) promises the "best eggs ever." Bold statement, but when you read the recipe, you just might find yourself nodding in agreement. Pair this creamy egg dish with Matcha Pancakes, which I'm going to go ahead and call "healthy" because of the matcha. Complete the spread with a side of sauteed spinach, plus grapefruit segments, vanilla yogurt, coffee and tea.
— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Mon Mar 03 2008
I'm a big fan of oats in pancakes. I often switch ground oats for half of the flour. I took this to a whole new level this weekend by switching the oats for a multigrain mix of rolled whole rye, barley, oats and wheat, and cooking the pancake batter in a cast iron pan wet with peanut oil. I also tossed in poppy and sunflower seeds for a nice hearty crunch, inspired by Heidi Swanson. The pancakes turned out nice and toasty, I presume from the rye and barley, but not fluffy, perhaps also due to these hearty grains.
Here's the recipe, altered from my long time favorite base pancake recipe, which I posted last April. Peanut oil lends a deep, earthy fragrance, but feel free to substitute. I frequently like to use what I have on hand. When I ran out of poppy seeds, I moved instead to cashew pieces for something crunchy.
Continue reading this entry »
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Thu Feb 28 2008
Kim Schwenke, pastry chef at Sepia, shares her recipe for Zebra Icebox Cake in the March issue of Food & Wine magazine. Special ingredients like Marsala and marscapone make this dessert a layered delight. The slightly ambitious recipe after the jump.
[Photo by Con Poulos Photography for Food and Wine]
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— Bobbi Bowers /
Recipe Sun Feb 24 2008
I'm an avowed menu planner, which until now has meant curling up on the couch with some of my favorite cookbooks and the latest issues of Cooking Light, Gourmet and Everyday Food to select what's for dinner for the next two weeks.
I'm not abandoning my cookbooks and magazines entirely, but I've expanded my menu search to include Chicago's many excellent food blogs. Here's the first in what will be a weekly roundup of recipes recommended by, and in some cases created by, Chicago food bloggers. A general observation: it's February in Chicago, which means lots of the recipes I found featured pasta, bread, cheese or some combination thereof. I say, embrace it; spring is right around the corner.
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— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Sat Feb 23 2008
Last Sunday, I attempted something I've never attempted before: making souffles. I went and bought six ramekins and stocked up on all the goodies, including a bar of Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate.
I whisked, melted, whipped and folded my way through the recipe. Thinking they looked pretty good, I put my six sugar-coated ramekins in the oven. Over-eager, I kept peaking through the oven door every five minutes expecting to see six beautifully-risen chocolate souffles. 
Except they never rose.
I'm not sure where I failed. Were my stiff peaks not stiff enough? Did I fold with too much fury? Or maybe souffles really are as hard to master as I've been lead to believe.
I'm determined to master the souffle. Maybe it was the recipe that let me down -- or maybe it was my lack of souffle skillz. Either way, check back later for a second souffle attempt.
[Photo from Cooking Light]
— Bobbi Bowers /
Diet magazines tell me I'm "an evening snacker" (supposedly that's a bad thing?). It's the time when I get creative (and caloric) with the snacks I conjure up to sate the post-dinner cravings.
This weekend's errands brought me to both Target and Trader Joe's where I picked up a container of Cantaré Olive Tapénade and bag of Archer Farms Black Pepper and Sea Salt potato chips (I'm addicted to the baked version), respectively. It hadn't occurred to me to introduce the two to each other, but their marriage was fated.
Struck by a taste for something salty, I opened the cupboard and found the chips. I took a bite. It wasn't enough. As if someone had softly whispered "olive tapénade" in my ear, I thought of the spread and placed a quarter teaspoons of the briny mix onto my chip. Crunchy, salty, satisfying and just nearly over-the-top, my latest snack hack compelled my husband to refer to me as FG (Food Genius) for the rest of the evening.
— Meghan Murphy Gill /
Recipe Mon Jan 28 2008
You may not own a tagine (the Moroccan cone-shaped cooking vessel pictured at left), but that doesn't mean you can't make a tagine in the comfort of your own home. Many tagine recipes can be successfully executed in a dutch oven or other large, oven-safe saucepan (i.e. no plastic handles). This tagine recipe produces richly spiced, tender pieces of chicken, which can be served over rice or couscous with the accompanying dried fruit and butternut squash, which lend a distinctly North African flavor. This mixture of sweet and savory is complimented by a variety of spices which add warmth without serious heat, perfect for the next bone-chilling cold spell that sweeps through the city.
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— Dana Currier /
Random Sat Jan 26 2008
On Friday, my hubby and I had a very Chicago kind of night in an unexpected setting: our apartment. Hometown blues legend Buddy Guy was featured on WXRT 93.1 FM, we had some Goose Island beer on hand and we decided to cook a dish from local darling Rick Bayless' "Mexico One Plate at a Time" &mdash Camarones al Mojo de Ajo, or Quick-Fried Shrimp with Sweet Toasty Garlic.
XRT DJ Tom Marker's soothing voice, Buddy Guy's "Sweet Home Chicago," some Oatmeal Stout, and the shrimp, cooked in a fragrant oil made by simmering two heads (not cloves) of chopped garlic in extra virgin olive oil, then adding the juice of a lime and two adobo chilies from a can, were the perfect anecdote to a cold, snowy evening.
No slogging through the snow to a crowded bar. No burning our mouths on deep-dish pizza. No visit to the over-priced Sears Tower Sky Deck. But a very fine Friday night in Chicago, indeed.
— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Wed Jan 23 2008
A few years ago I visited my friend Margaret in St. Petersburg, Russia where she had been living for some time. I could speak endlessly of the culinary delights that I found in that country, but one that stands out was the Korean Carrot Salad sold in the nearby markets.
This simple salad is, as far as I know, not a Korean dish at all. Rather, it is an ingenious Russian dish that blends shredded carrots, fiery seasoning and oil. I work in West Town just down the street from Ann's Bakery, a lovely Ukrainian grocery store that will hopefully be able to stick it out now that Dominick's has moved in down the street. Ann's Korean Carrot Salad sells for about $5 a pound at their deli counter. While you are there you should probably pick up some delicious light rye bread too.
If you are feeling more adventurous, or just happen to have a lot of carrots on hand you can make your own by following recipe after the jump...
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— Gemma Petrie /
Recipe Sun Jan 20 2008
Whenever my mom makes this recipe, she tends to make people angry. Why? Because even though it doesn't look all that good, people quickly realize how irresistible this candy is, and they become enraged once they realize they are unable to control themselves in its presence. Saltines are, of course, not an obvious ingredient in a candy recipe. It's their texture and not their flavor that's important here. By providing a base layer, they give the sugar, butter and chocolate something crispy and crunchy to cling to. Once you try this candy, you'll find that the saltines are irreplaceable in the recipe and that you'll have to exercise great self-restraint in the cracker aisle at the grocery store in order to fend off the addiction.
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— Dana Currier /
There have been some bitter feelings since local favorite Marshall Field's became Macy's back in 2006, but Frango chocolates are sweeter than ever due to their nationwide availability. I received The Frango Cookbook: Simple Recipes & Sweet Ideas as a Christmas gift from my mother in-law—a charming and beautifully photographed dessert cookbook featuring 36 Frango-filled recipes. 
From easy recipes that even the most amateur baker could tackle (like Flourless Frango Chocolate Cake which is featured on the cover of the cookbook and uses only 3 ingredients—including 45 Frango chocolates), to ones that are a bit more complicated (like Famous Frango Chocolate Cheesecake), this is a sweet cookbook that will pull at any chocoholics heartstrings.
[Photo from Macys.com]
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— Bobbi Bowers /
Recipe Thu Jan 03 2008
At this time of year, the last thing anyone wants is another heavy dessert. And with citrus fruits at their peak, there's no better time to make a recipe like this one. It's all in the presentation here since the ingredients are simple and there aren't many of them. Regular navel oranges work just fine, but for a more luxurious result, look for blood oranges. Once you've peeled the orange (removing every last scrap of white pith), hold it in the palm of your left hand and, using a paring knife, remove each section by cutting right alongside the membranes that separate one section from the next. Arrange the sections in a circle on a plate as pictured and squeeze on top whatever is left of the orange now that the sections are removed. Next, if you like, drizzle on a drop or two of Grand Marnier and a pinch of sugar. Finally, grate a fine dusting of good dark chocolate on top. What you'll get is a dessert that's sweet and juicy and won't leave you with that dizzy, leaden, "did I just eat twelve sugar cookies?" feeling you'd grown so accustomed to over the past few weeks.
— Dana Currier /
Random Tue Dec 18 2007
I first saw this creation on an episode of the Barefoot Contessa. A friend of Ina Garten's assembled it for a cocktail party at the summer opening of an art show, but I was immediately struck by how perfect such a centerpiece would be for a holiday party. You'll need a styrofoam tree form (which can be obtained at any craft or floral store), toothpicks, basil leaves, cherry tomatoes and bocconcini, or small balls of fresh mozzarella. The amount you'll need depends on the size of the tree form, but I recommend buying 2 pints of cherry tomatoes and 2 pint-size tubs of bocconcini for a 9-inch tree. You can use as much basil as you like, either tucking the leaves in at the base to line the plate or sticking them in between the balls of cheese and tomatoes for decoration.
— Dana Currier /
Recipe Tue Dec 18 2007
It's been two days of cookies. My sweetie and I kicked it off with small, thin and crispy chocolate cookies with a slightly chewy peppermint filling that refreshed quite well. We used the Minty Chocolate Christmas Cookies recipe that Heidi Swanson posted from her Super Natural Cooking book. I changed out the egg white for one tablespoon of tapioca flour, the butter for non-hydrogenated margarine and I was keeping vegan. Stuck on peppermint the next day, I moved to the shortbread recipe Heidi posted from Castle Cookbook that she found nearby Hearst Castle. I added one-quarter teaspoon peppermint extract with the vanilla, one-half teaspoon ground cardamom mixed with the flour, replaced margarine for butter again, and halved the original recipe to limit sugar shock. I got just what I'd expected, a cookie that held together brilliantly but crumbled in the mouth. The cardamom fragrance hit first, before the peppermint vapor invigorated. Meanwhile, a friend was on linzertorte cookies from a found recipe in two varieties (photo), hazelnut-coconut-orange-zest-vanilla with apricot jam, and almond with raspberry jam. Hers turned out quite nutty, hearty and wholesome with the perfect touch of sweetness in the center jam dot.
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Tue Dec 11 2007
Homemade soup is one of the most comforting winter meals. I often forget how quickly a delicious bowl can be made. I reminded myself last week with the following:
Greens and White Beans Soup
Ingredients
6 C vegetable stock (I like using Edward & Sons Garden Veggie bouillon)
1 can white beans, drained
1 C frozen collard greens
1 C orzo
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
black pepper
Method
In a large pot boil water and add bouillon. Reduce heat and add greens and beans, followed by spices. Let simmer a few minutes, then increase the heat and add the orzo. Cook for 5 minutes or until the pasta is tender.
— Gemma Petrie /
Recipe Fri Dec 07 2007
With all the cranberry, pumpkin and gingerbread-flavored baked goods that seem to show up in droves at this time of year, banana bread is probably the last thing on most of our minds. But I've found that there's no single ingredient that sweetens and moistens a muffin like the humble banana. And the best thing about using bananas for baking is that they don't have to be in pristine condition. In fact, a spotted, brown, past-its-prime, downright ugly banana makes for a much better muffin or loaf of bread than a perfectly ripe one does.
Continue reading this entry »
— Dana Currier /
Recipe Thu Dec 06 2007
Many children awoke this morning to find the empty shoes they had placed outside their door last night full of candy and small gifts from St. Nick.
In the United States the story of Saint Nicholas is fairly innocuous, promising gifts to good children and coal to bad children. However, the tale was historically quite sinister in parts of Central Europe. German children feared a visit from Saint Nicholas' goat-legged companion, Knecht Ruprecht, who might beat the bad children or sometimes eat them. In Switzerland, Schmutzli would punish bad behavior by putting children in a sack and taking them to the Black Forest where he might drown them in a river. And in Croatia, Krampus might leave a metal rod for the parents to beat their misbehaved children.
However you choose to celebrate, the Saint Nicholas Center has a vast number of recipes to aid you. I'm especially intrigued by the Dutch Peppernut Cookies, made with white pepper. Find the recipe after the jump.
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— Gemma Petrie /
Recipe Tue Dec 04 2007
My bachelorette party was on Saturday night, and my fiancee (thoughtfully) vacated the premises for the weekend to give me and my girlfriends some space. It has been awhile since I had the place to myself, so I took full advantage on Friday night by climbing into my most comfortable PJs I own, downloading the past several Grey's Anatomy episodes that I've missed, and settling down in front of the tube with my favorite comfort food: slow-cooked scrambled eggs, two pieces of toast (one with butter, one with butter and jelly), and for dessert, a bowl of granola.
If you've never had slow-cooked scrambled eggs, they're worth the extra few minutes of effort.
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— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Wed Nov 28 2007
Red ribbons, pine boughs and the less-traditional, but extraordinarily popular, giant inflatable snow globes are appearing in front yards across the city. While I have nothing against Christmas decorations in November, I simply cannot abide the co-mingling of two holidays. I’m talking about pumpkins, stubbornly ponderous and conspicuously orange, still competing for the limelight on random odd front porches.
People, have not your decorative gourds served you well? It’s time to gently (gently) release them into that good night. To help you let go, I’ve whipped up a recipe worthy of any great (or, rather, small to medium) pumpkin.
Here’s what you’ll need:
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— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Recipe Fri Nov 23 2007
A photo in the November Bon Appétit was gorgeous - luscious green brussels sprouts, thinly sliced, almost looking shredded, aside golden caramelized onions in a large white bowl edged with a deep blue stripe on top of simple kitchen workspace. It's the photo for their recipe of Brussels Sprout Hash with Caramelized Shallots. When I'd gone to Green City Market, handfuls of super fresh little Brussels sprouts seemed true to the image in the photo. I bought a pound of them at Nichols Farm's tent and commented on their size - most about 3/4-inch in diameter. One worker told me that he doesn't peel these small ones - just wash and cook. I asked about dark spots I saw on the surface. Another told me they don't spray and suggested that it wouldn't be good if there weren't marks. I needed one and one-half pounds for the recipe as is, so I adjusted all quantities by two-thirds.
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Fri Nov 16 2007
My Mom's been asking me to email her my vegan waffle recipe. It's the latest version in my slowly ongoing attempts to create a good recipe. It has a nice but lean crispy crunch and releases from the waffle iron with ease. And unlike previous recipes, it's relatively simple. One earlier version used ground cashews and flax seeds, another had almond meal plus peanut oil and ground oats, a third used egg-replacer, another wanted white vinegar or lemon to forge buttermilk, and yet another recipe used blackstrap molasses.
In this latest recipe, the only thing that might be at all hard to find is the tapioca flour. But it does make for a super gooey consistency that holds the batter together quite well. This one's for you, Mom.
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon tapioca flour
4 teaspoons sugar
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
Dashes of salt
1 cup soy milk
2 tablespoons oil (I like grapeseed oil)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Spray a waffle iron with oil and preheat it. Whisk dry ingredients. Add soy milk and whisk in until smooth. Whisk in oil and vanilla. Pour into waffle iron.
Yield: 4 square Belgium waffles
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Thu Nov 15 2007
Real Simple's Web exclusive this week features 14 recipes for quick, easy and belly-warming soups ranging from an ultra basic French onion to a slightly more exotic spicy sweet potato and coconut and everything in between. Even if you're not a recipe follower (and who really needs to be with soups?), these are good for a little inspiration and can definitely be improved upon (Gruyere instead of Swiss on the French onion?).
— Meghan Murphy Gill /
Recipe Wed Nov 14 2007
No, not the stale leftover stuff nobody wanted from Halloween. (Bit O' Honey anyone? What was that stuff anyway?) The local publication of daily email digest Daily Candy has a recipe today for some highly seasonal pumpkin pie pancakes with cranberry maple syrup, courtesy of Moto's Ben Roche. They promise no lasers or edible ink are needed, though you will need a blender. Sounds scrumptious. And if they're not enough to get your autumnal taste buds fired up, Moto itself is all about fall flavors at the moment, with a menu offering from an apple and brown butter pairing (not likely from Amish tradition), a pumpkin tamale and more. Mmm, if fall tastes as good as it looks on paper, tie a bib on and get out your eating dress.
— Andie Thomalla /
Review Fri Nov 09 2007
Not too long ago, I scored a copy of Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food to add to my small collection of cookbooks. The pages are understated, adorned with sketches of vegetables, herbs and meat. The recipes seem basic at first glance; Waters gives instructions on grilling vegetables and preparing a chicken broth. But with recipes such as Pork Shoulder Braised with Dried Chiles and Persimmon and Pomegranate Salad, Waters asserts that simple food does not mean bland food.
The recipe for Tortilla Soup is after the jump.
Continue reading this entry »
— Meghan Murphy Gill /
Perusing the soda aisle for some Ginger Ale at Jewel last week, I noticed a few cases of Big Red. I haven't seen "America's #1 Red Soda" in years -- not that I've been missing it. When I went back to snap a photo last night, it was sold out! Apparently there are those who were longing for it.
Or maybe they were hoping to make some Big Red Cake.
Continue reading this entry »
— Meghan Murphy Gill /
Blog Wed Nov 07 2007
On nights when it's my turn to cook for my roomie but I'd rather grab take out and veg with a book, I force myself into it. For a second, I would wish I had just picked us both up falafel at Sultan's, plated it, and brought out our deep fryer to pretend like I made it. It's too bad she wouldn't believe that unless the whole apartment smelled like oil. And if it really did, I might as well be making my own falafel. I usually love to cook. My weeks have been hectic (sometimes too much time wasted away on tedious tasks like searching for the perfect day bag) and it's been maybe two weeks since it's been my turn to cook. So here's a memory of a cooking love fest from a few weeks back.
Continue reading this entry »
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Tue Oct 30 2007
The National Museum of Mexican Art is holding a contest to find the best family recipes for Recetas de mi tierra, an upcoming cookbook to celebrate the Museum's 20th anniversary. A contest for the best recipes that have "survived the journey" from Mexico to Chicagoland is being held, with the winners receiving a free copy of the book, which will include their recipe, a biography and photograph of their family. Deadline is October 31. Click here for more details.
— Robyn Nisi /
Recipe Mon Oct 29 2007
It's finally autumn; the chill in the air seems to be sticking around, the trees are raining down gloriously hued leaves onto the sidewalks, and the local famers' tables are brimming with apples, pears, pumpkins, yams, bunches of Indian corn and twigs of bittersweets. From the cornucopia of autumn, I've always loved the combination of sweet potatoes and apples. One recent morning, I returned to my old favorite combination for breakfast.
Essentially a big, multi-serving pancake loaded with sweet potatoes and apples, then cut into individual pieces at the table, this autumn harvest pancake makes for a fun presentation. The sweet potato circles, embedded on the surface of the flipped-up pancake announce autumn, and their earthy sweetness is met by the tart-sweet goodness of the apple wedges hidden inside. And best of all, it only takes a bowl and a skillet to cook.
Continue reading this entry »
— Yu Kizawa /
Recipe Mon Oct 29 2007
We have a Halloween party every year. And while the food we serve varies from year to year, the one constant is the gelled cheeseball I make with a brain jello mold. The first year I made it, I followed a recipe I found online that combined canned mushroom soup, cream cheese and shrimp, along with some unflavored gelatin (and lemon juice and tabasco sauce). It was tasty, and there wasn't much left by the end of the night. The next year, I tried making it with crab meat instead. It didn't taste as good or, more importantly, have the right texture or the right shade of pinkish gray to look like a brain. This year, since my son won't eat meat or seafood, I used sun-dried tomatoes instead of shrimp. Again, the color and the texture weren't quite as brainy as they were the first year, but it was a good vegetarian version. Plus, the yellow oil that the sun-dried tomatoes came in formed a little pool around the brain, which was a nice effect. The recipe for the shrimp version follows.
Continue reading this entry »
— Lori Barrett /
Recipe Sun Oct 28 2007
My roomie Liz, our friend Andy and I used to alternate cooking dinner for each other a few times a week. Those nights, I felt like I was eating with family until the dinners faded months ago. A few days after Andy suggested a revival, Liz was searing slices of leftover neatloaf in a small cast iron pan.
I'm vegan, which pretty much makes our dinners vegan. Our dining room table was full of analogues to traditional American comfort food in sturdy baking dishes. A square glass dish held baked mac (rotini instead of macaroni this time) and not-cheese. Pan seared neatloaf lined a deep white oval baking dish. A small wavy white pitcher was full of gravy Liz had just made from scratch. A slender white candle completed a metaphor of comfort food purity. A clear glass bowl held pureed cauliflower. It looked like mashed potato, but tasted clearly not - much lighter.
After dinner, I asked Liz to explain what she made. Below are my notes with Liz's quotes mixed in. Amounts weren't measured, but in many cases I asked Liz to tell how she knew when she had added the correct amount of an ingredient. Improvising based on what's going on is key. Any stated quantities have been guessed after the fact.
Continue reading this entry »
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Sun Oct 28 2007
If Jay's Potato Chips will be no more by the end of this year, then now is the time to take advantage of this crispy chip while it still exists. You can start by making potato chip cookies, one of the best marriages of snack foods ever. Here is a simple, killer recipe.
— Robyn Nisi /
Chef Wed Oct 24 2007
Paula Deen, the Food Network's queen of country cuisine, is coming to The Chicago Theater on November 17th for two live shows. Paula will share her favorite down home recipes with fans, as well as cooking tips and advice. Tickets are still available for both shows. You bet your britches that I'll be there.
Can't wait until November? Try making one of my favorite Paula recipes--corn casserole--at home. (Warning: recipe may not be suitable for the calorie-conscious.)
Paula Deen's Corn Casserole
1 (15 1/4-ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (14 3/4-ounce) can cream-style corn
1 (8-ounce) package corn muffin mix
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together the 2 cans of corn, corn muffin mix, sour cream, and melted butter. Pour into a greased 9 by 13-inch casserole dish. Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and top with cheddar. Return to oven for 5 to 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Let stand for at least 5 minutes and then serve warm.
— Bobbi Bowers /
Recipe Mon Oct 08 2007
Frozen bananas arguably make a shake from what would otherwise be a cold smoothie. On hot sweaty days that bring fantasies of an endless crisp fall, I think of such frozen drinks - the thick type that leaves your mouth and throat well chilled. I created the recipes below when it had been very hot - when the toothpaste in my un-air-conditioned bathroom turned as warm as a fresh baked pie; when I'd replenished myself with four pints of water in some two minutes; and when I'd smell of the ginger spray I use after bicycling to work. That is when a shake makes its best appearance. Here are some of my favorites.
Continue reading this entry »
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Mon Sep 24 2007
Ordinarily on Sundays, my spouse and I treat ourselves to brunch at one of the many many great brunch spots Chicago has to offer. But this past weekend I suggested we make a run to our favorite grocery store (Harvest Time, a Mexican/Eastern European/Greek market) and make our own brunch at home. It saved us a little money, and if we worked together on the prep and clean up, we'd save a little time, too. The heat is no longer stifling when we turn on the oven or stove, so it was hight time we get back to cooking breakfast.
These corn cakes are a modification of the "Johnnycakes" recipe in Joy of Cooking, a regular resource for me. I added a couple of tablespoons of diced red pepper, green onion and grated cheddar cheese to the batter for extra flavor. The corn cakes work more as a stand-alone meal with the added ingredients.
Continue reading this entry »
— Meghan Murphy Gill /
Recipe Sun Sep 23 2007
I am not one to do any promotion for Trader Joe's, the store that needs no promotion, but now that fall is here, I will be making more trips for their Pumpkin Bread and Muffin Mix. While I've gotten burned on some of unevenly satisfying TJ's products (turkey sausage stromboli, our time was brief and flavorless), they hit major paydirt with this powdered mix, which produces a moist, well-textured and correctly spiced loaf.
— Robyn Nisi /
Recipe Thu Sep 20 2007
I love Thai curries. But sometimes I find the curry-infused veggies in them somewhat disappointing--whatever vegetables you use, they all taste like curry, because the flavor of the curry is so strong (though tasty). The other day, I wanted to cook some Thai red curry with (some of the last batch of) the summer veggies I had at hand, and decided to tweak the usual recipe to address that "all the veggies taste alike" problem. After all, it's mid-September and we're soon saying goodbye to the beautiful summer veggie season.
Instead of cooking the veggies (grape tomatoes, an orange pepper and a bitter melon--an eggplant I thought I had turned out to be quite dead), I grilled them in the little toaster oven. While the veggies cooked, I fried some ginger in palm oil in a heavy skillet, then browned some chicken thigh. When the chicken was browned on the outside, I set it aside and fried the red curry paste, added coconut milk. Then I put back the chicken in the skillet and let the curry simmer for a while. It was smelling already pretty good at this point.
In the toaster oven set at around 500 degrees, the tomatoes started to burst pretty soon, so I rescued them first and dumped in the curry skillet (which had been turned all the way to the lowest setting to keep it warm without losing all the liquid), . After several more minutes, the skin on the pepper started to brown and bubble up, which then I transferred to the skillet. The bitter melon took a while to cook, probably about 15 minutes. When, finally, the bitter melons were nice and brown, I put them in the skillet and turned up the heat to quickly warm up everything.
Although the photograph came out rather unappetizing (which is why it's not here), the curry turned out very nice to the palate. Each vegetable still retained its own flavor and stood up against the punchy curry, which worked more like a sauce than a soup. Although the veggies didn't contribute to the flavor of the curry, the chicken did, and given the already complex aromas and flavors of the curry mix, this was more than enough. The other advantage of this method was that I could control the cooking time for each veggie pretty easily, thus giving each one the best texture. This might just become my standard way of doing Thai red curry.
— Yu Kizawa /
Celebrated food writer, cookbook co-author and Bourdain partner-in-crime, Michael Ruhlman wrote a while ago about how the classic Caesar salad was no longer really a Caesar salad in the modern American restaurant (or rather, chain).
A call to arms was made and Ruhlman proposed the Chicken Fried Pork Belly Caesar Salad, urging chefs across the country to introduce it to their menus. While chef Chris Cosentino of Incanto in San Francisco brought his version to the dish and answered the call, Mike Mavrantonis, chef of (all places), Mike Ditka's in Oakbrook has brought it to the Chicagoland area.
Kevin Pang, writer of the Trib's Stew, reviews the dish.
— Naz Hamid /
Recipe Wed Sep 12 2007
Corn stacked up in farmers markets makes me think of the nice crunch that the crisp kernels give, as they break free of the cobs. But what do we do with all the corn? In India, I've seen husked corn roasted directly on glowing hot coals in carts on the street. The char impacts a nice chalky mouthfeel. Short of my own street cart and any charcoal whatsoever, I thought of the canned creamed corn I liked as a kid. Although, I think it would be brilliant to use the chalky coal-roasted corn in soup. I broke out the immersion blender to make a thin chowder. It's a good tool because it lets you blend in the cooking pot. You don't have to let the soup cool and then transfer it to a traditional blender. And you would want to wait for it to cool. The one time that I blended hot liquid in a regular blender, the lid blew off throwing scalding hot soup all about.
You could use a roux to thicken the soup - or reduce the amount of stock. If you want to skip the stock or bouillon cubes, try adding sautéed onions just before blending. Diced potatoes will work well, too. The soup is good hot or cold, although the salt content of the stock seems more obvious when chilled.
Continue reading this entry »
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Sun Sep 09 2007
I strolled out for a cup of coffee and a short walk to break from my Sunday afternoon reading. I came home hungry with a juicy orange tomato and an orange pepper from a farmers market I'd forgotten was going on a few blocks away. It's this kind of simple, comfortable and social going to market that inspired me to help start a program to encourage more walk-down-the-street food shopping. With slices from a loaf of multigrain, arugula and onion sprouts from a different farmers market yesterday, I toasted the perfect peanut butter treat. I used a lovely 7.5" cast iron pan I bought for a few dollars from a sidewalk sale earlier this summer. In the mouth, the peanut butter feels thick and substantial, balanced by the tomato's light juices and scrubbed clean from arugula and multigrain. The mushrooms give an earthy frangrance, and the onion sprouts leave the essence of an onion. Here's the recipe - just a few minutes of work.
Continue reading this entry »
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Fri Sep 07 2007
I am not ready to bid farewell to outdoor dining and sleeping with the air conditioner cranked. Please don't talk to me about knee-high boots, tweed coats or pumpkin anything until I see some fall foliage starting to happen, OK? See, despite the sweltering heat and humidity some would have us believe that since school and football season are back in full swing, fall is as well. The headlines on the magazine covers in the check out line read "Fall fashions for under 100 bucks!," "Celebrate Autumn with Delicious Fall Recipes," and "Prepping Your Home for Winter." That last one really irks me. It's not even Halloween. Heck, it's actually not fall, yet. There are still 14 days of summer, people!
There is, however, one thing I'm willing to put up with regarding all the hoopla over the change of the seasons: foods for noshing during football games. Perhaps it's that enjoying the salty/greasy/crunchy snacks isn't limited to the cooler seasons (however, I do think it's easier to enjoy them when you know you'll be hidden under sweaters and wool coats for the next six months).
(Keep reading for the recipe link! It's worth it, I promise.)
Continue reading this entry »
— Meghan Murphy Gill /
Recipe Tue Aug 21 2007
Sables Florentin--squares of buttery sable with a rich almond-caramel topping--is one of my favorite sweets since childhood when my mom used to bake them for the special three-o'clock snack time. As a grown-up, though, I can't expect the indulgent dessert to magically pop out of my oven like they used to fifteen years ago. I've made them a few times, but it always seemed like a lot of work, even though the result has usually been more than satisfying. The most annoying part has been the making of caramel. If you don't know, let me just say that when you make caramel you're pouring cold fresh cream into a pot of lava-like, burning-hot (actually burning, come to think of it) sugar. Does it spatter? Oh, yeah.
But there's an alternative to that, as I've found out recently.
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— Yu Kizawa /
Recipe Tue Aug 21 2007
I love leisurely cooking with friends. Sometimes that means more time for sipping wine and chatting than prepping food. And that's when it's time for simple recipes that don't need precision - especially after a relaxing bike trip for groceries. Some might say that rainy days aren't fun for bicycle riding, but I think those are some of the best times. Muggy Chicago summer usually drops several degrees, the air feels refreshed and the streets are cool, not hot. Yet I don't want to get wet by another downpour. A German pal sent me a rain poncho with finger straps you use to extend the poncho over your legs as you grip the handlebars. It goes brilliantly with waterproof panniers to keep your groceries dry.
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Mon Aug 20 2007
When our garden runneth over with tomatoes and basil, which happens ever year around now, we like to eat them up in the freshest, most unadulterated way possible. The quick answer is to slice up the 'mater, sprinkle on some kosher salt, and layer on some freshly cut basil. If I can manage to find myself a hammock to swing on while I leisurely snack on them, I'm in heaven.
The longer and possibly more rewarding answer is to make grilled pizza. The recipe we use is from Cook's Illustrated, and we agree with their rule of keeping the pizza as lightly topped as possible. Whereas an oven-baked pie is usually smothered in a layer of parmesan or mozzarella, the grilled kind should be considered an oversized bruschetta, with a few flavorful toppings that really pop.
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— Sandy Weisz /
Summertime is a good time for food porn. Colorful, varied, and never boring, I find pics of summer dishes to be almost better than eating the darned thing. So when I got my hands on a recent Smitten Kitchen post about a Summer Berry Pudding, I began planning my own foray into photographed cooking. I was going to make the Summer Berry Pudding. And it was going to be artful, clean, and delicious. Just like the photos.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Recipe Tue Aug 14 2007
We may not have Pinkberry here in Chicago, but this recipe, from The Perfect Scoop, is said to rival Pinkberry's sweet treats. I tried the recipe, and it is yummy enough to replace ice cream (most of the time, anyway), but having missed the only opportunity I've had to taste "Crackberry," I can't say for certain which is better.
— Meghan Murphy Gill /
Recipe Sun Aug 12 2007
When a friend asked me to help pick some plums one neighborhood over, I couldn't say no. That takes local food to a whole new level for me. Four plums made vibrantly colorful, thick and juicy chutney. In the community spirit, cilantro came from Armitage Produce (Armitage and Kimball) on the way home.
Fresh Cilantro Plum Chutney
4 fresh plums, pitted and finely chopped
1 handful cilantro, finely chopped
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 dash cayenne powder for a bit of heat
4 shakes of salt
2 turns of freshly ground black pepper
Smash together with a pestle in a mortar and serve with your favorite summer veggie dish.
— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Tue Aug 07 2007
I love the way steamy blueberries burst open from hot pancakes as you break off pieces to eat. It feels even better after using berries you picked for yourself. My pal Rose drove us to Billy Boy's Blueberry Barn in Michigan City, Indiana, on comfortable and humble back roads to avoid the daily interstate congestion. Much of a blueberry plant's fruit is easily picked within an arm's length, making it something to look forward to when you're crawling around picking strawberries inches from the ground earlier in the year.
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Thu Aug 02 2007
When I veganize a recipe, I often wonder if I should limit the changes just to making it vegan - something that often yields a reasonably similar product. Or should I make it healthier or incorporate some other change, too? In the latter comes the risk of wrongly associating the image of a vegan product with what might better be understood as a compromise - or adjustment - in taste driven by that other change, say to limit the amount of saturated fat, salt, sugar or just plain fun. If we want, we can fatten up vegan products quite well and tasty just like their buttery counterparts. Gladly, pitting six cups of cherries by hand left me plenty of time to think about which option to choose.
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Thu Aug 02 2007
I need not even mention that the heat is the impetus behind my attempts to cool off in a way that doesn't involve jumping in Lake Michigan. With some limes leftover from a bulk buy (the 20 for $1 deal found in Mexican groceries all over town) and some fresh ginger, I finally put to use that cute little popsicle mold I bought at Target weeks ago. Here's the recipe:
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— Meghan Murphy Gill /
Recipe Wed Jul 25 2007
On those summer nights that find you rushing to the grocery store after work with nothing planned for dinner and yearning for something fresh off the grill, try this. Instead of passing by the potato bin, bemoaning their heavy starches and long cooking time, toss a few in your basket. When you get home, punch a few holes in each and throw them in the microwave for five minutes. It's not quite long enough to cook them through, but it's enough to give them a poor man's parboil. Meanwhile, fire up the grill. When the potatoes are done, carefully thread them onto some skewers, baste with olive oil and whatever spices you like, and grill them for another five minutes. They'll be ready for a quick light summer potato salad, say with some arugula, some grilled scallions or pearl onions, and whatever other herbs you have growing in your backporch garden.
— Sandy Weisz /
Orso's-inspired picnic makings
A good quaint Italian restaurant reminds me of the places my grandpa would take me to. They were fine, humble, had great service, and usually a pianist through the night. Orso's takes me back there. The piano plays most nights, the lighting is romantically dim, the ceilings of Old World tin, and they take care of me changing up the menu to meet my vegan whim. Their amazingly succulent portobello lying in a juicy red wine balsamic reduction needed no change. Hearty with plenty of rosemary, its deep flavor suggested molasses. After that starter, I asked for penne in olive oil with peas and mushrooms. Again, the mushrooms were fabulous, and they were in plenty. Penne came perfectly al-dente, in plenty of well-salted olive oil. Multiple wines are available by the half carafe, and they check in on you quite well. Leaving on my most recent visit, my sweetie and I had a fine time walking around the quaint streets of Old Town Triangle a few blocks up, feeling like I was in Old World Europe.
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Sat Jul 21 2007
Not that I'm a health nut, but I like to make Japanese-style burgers with ground chicken and tofu. Light, fluffy and aromatic, this bastard child of the manly American staple can be surprisingly satisfying. Using crushed tofu in hamburgers became popular in my home country probably a decade or so ago. Although it was initially intended as a healthier option for beef-based burgers, the method quickly became something of a national favorite thanks to its lighter texture and its versatility. Perhaps not surprisingly, this tofu-based burger sits quite well with traditional Japanese meals. I'd recommend serving it with a bowl of rice, rather than between hamburger buns. And you know what? With this tasty yet healthier version of a burger, you can have a few more of those wedge fries without a tinge of guilt!
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— Yu Kizawa /
Recipe Tue Jul 17 2007
Fresh basil sorbet was hiding out in my freezer when I arrived. My roomie Liz had crafted it using one of many harvests from our prolific basil plant. It's amazingly fragrant as basil should be, plus almost as simple as making ice. Almost. She didn't measure it out, so here the recipe is, approximated and as remembered after the fact.
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Mon Jul 16 2007
Beans are magical for more reasons than that. They're cheap, easy to prepare (or find prepared), and they have the miraculous ability to sop up the alcohol in that extra beer you definitely should have said "no" to.
My favorite beans come mashed and cooked in some kind of fat. Refritos, or refried beans, are so delicious at my local taqueria, but making them at home gives me a little control over the amount of fat in which they're cooked. Here's a recipe I love to use for Guatemalan refritos from the Mennonite cookbook, Extending the Table.
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— Meghan Murphy Gill /
Recipe Wed Jul 11 2007
"My informal research shows that there are lots of guys like me. There must be hundreds of mayonnaise-adverse men who are being ignored by the picnic side dish industry," says my husband the ad guy.
While I have no distaste for the classic condiment, I do think that any dish destined for an outdoor event ought to avoid the stuff. A mayo-based salad of any kind baking in the sun is just asking for trouble. So, I thought I'd share the recipe I came up with to appease both my hubby and any other folks who may share his mayo-hatah solidarity.
Mayo Hater Potato Salad
2 lbs small red potatoes
1 T Dijon mustard*
2 T cider vinegar
3 T olive oil
½ c loosely packed cilantro leaves
1 small red bell pepper, small dice
1 green onion, green & white parts, chopped
2 stalks celery, small dice
2-3 T red onion, very small dice
Salt & pepper to taste
Bring half a large pot of water to a rolling boil.
Add potatoes. Boil for 20-25 min until just tender.
Drain and let cool.
In a large bowl, whisk together mustard and cider vinegar.
Slowly whisk in olive oil. It should emulsify into a thick dressing. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
(I usually start with about 8 turns of pepper mill and 2 pinches salt.)
Rough chop cilantro and mix into vinaigrette.
Add red pepper, green onion, celery, and red onion and stir to coat.
Once potatoes are cool, cut into eighths or small pieces.
Add potatoes to bowl and gently toss with vegetables and dressing mixture.
Taste and adjust salt and pepper if necessary.
Cover and chill for about an hour before serving.
Makes about 4 side dish servings.
* Substitute a sweet/hot mustard or honey mustard for a different flavor.
— Christine Blumer /
Recipe Tue Jul 10 2007
My pal Rose had a dinner where her friend Elena (pronounced Elen-Ah) from Milan, Italy, prepared a fabulous zucchini soup from back home. "It was so fun," Rose told me as she made this soup for me. "She makes the best pizza in the world, too." Sauté the sliced onion in a pan with a thin layer of hot oil on medium heat. We used two spring onions from the farmers market instead of a grown-up medium yellow onion. Stir the thin onion slices around a bit to coat with oil, and when they're between translucent and lightly golden, add the sliced zucchini. Cover and let it sweat. After a few minutes, when the vegetables have softened a bit, cover with vegetable stock, or water if you're using bullion cubes. For the latter, Rose recommends sautéing three veggie bullion cubes in the olive oil when you start, before you add the onions, to infuse the oil with its flavor. Boil the liquid down, uncovered, until the zucchini is tender, when it succumbs to a piercing fork without resisting. Next, add parsley. Blend until just a little chunky.
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Mon Jul 09 2007
One of my favorite food categories in Japanese cuisine is takikomi gohan--seasoned rice. Takikomi gohan is usually seasoned with soy sauce, fish or kelp stock, sugar, and various ingredients like chicken, carrots, shiitake mushrooms and bamboo shoots are cut into tiny bits and added. There are wide range of condiments and ingredients that can be used in takikomi gohan, and it seems as though a new one is invented every day. Despite experimentations, however, takikomi gohan remains deeply seated in a Japanese mind as a comfort food that evokes the image of home and the rhythmic tapping sounds of the mother's knife against her cutting board.
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— Yu Kizawa /
Recipe Sat Jul 07 2007
These remind me of the hash browns I used to order all the time in the Chicago diners I'd happily frequent years ago before my vegan days. Shredding makes them fluffy and super soft and helps develop a nice even brown. Boil two medium russet potatoes until a fork goes in with just a tap (use any kind you like, but these are nicely starchy). If you cube them first, they'll boil much faster but make sure you have a food processor with a shredding disc as their size will make them very challenging to shred with a hand grater. Drain, rinse to cool, shake dry and shred. Mix in a few shakes of salt, more if you're a big fan of it with potatoes. Heat oil on medium in a medium pan (try a seasoned cast iron pan to give a nice brown without sticking). When the oil is hot and a touch of potato sizzles, lay down the shredded potatoes all at once to a single round about 1/4" thick and wait for the bottom to brown. Then flip - all at once if you can - and wait for the other side to go golden. Serve hot with BBQ sauce and freshly ground black pepper.
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Wed Jul 04 2007
Though the season's patriotic holidays have passed us by, this tart is not strictly a red, white and blue affair. Any summer fruit can be substituted for the strawberries, raspberries and blueberries which star in this incarnation. What is most appealing about this recipe is the unexpected ingredients in its shell and filling: gingersnaps and Greek yogurt. Both make for a lighter, spicier, tangier flavor than you find in a typical fruit pie. Read on for the recipe.
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— Dana Currier /
Recipe Sun Jul 01 2007
My dinner companion Meleah went through loads of fresh vegetables that had been overwhelming my fridge. This is, "what happens when lawyers in brief-writing mode get a nap," she told me as she moved from chopping block to stove making two dishes for us as I shot photos. She pan-fried thin sweet potatoes slices with onions and hot olive oil in a large cast iron skillet. Without a lid, she covered up with a sheet pan to get the potatoes cooking in their centers. "Tender to the bite," Meleah told me, but not too dry. Just after it all started to brown, fresh sage went in. Some stayed soft and tender, other pieces nicely crispened. Salt and freshly ground pepper finished it, because potatoes love this.
A Mediterranean-inspired salad came next. Meleah sautéed garlic in olive oil, then stirred in a large bowl of fresh spinach and a can of chickpeas and cooked it until the spinach went soft and wilted - just about enough time to put a little warmth on the chickpeas. She stirred in golden raisins, chopped Kalamata olives picked from their salty brine and chopped roasted cashews. A few good splashes of balsamic vinegar, salt and freshly ground pepper made it right. "Brine, salt and sweet," Meleah told me. What do you do if your spinach is too wet but it's wilted enough? Run it through a colander.
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— Chris Brunn /
Drink Sun Jul 01 2007
Currently, Trader Joe’s is carrying some of the finest little Clementine oranges I’ve seen in quite a while. Grown in Chile, this variety of mandarin orange is sold in 2lb. netted bags that retail for a very friendly $3.50. These “Premium Clementines” rate very highly in taste and have an uncommon juiciness that makes for a bit of a messy snack, but one heck of a cocktail ingredient. Sure, they work quite well in any recipe that calls for a little OJ, but a simple cocktail allows the Clementine juice’s uniquely tangy sweetness to take center stage. I’ve put together a distinctly summertime drink recipe that’s as simple as it is delicious. I’ve left the template loose to accommodate a variety of tastes.
(Continued below the fold...)
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— Bryan Delano III /
Recipe Wed Jun 27 2007
To survive the unbearably hot and humid Japanese summers, the Japanese have created a nice array of cold sweets. Today, I made one of them: shiratama dango. Tender dumplings made of sweet rice flour, shiratama dango roughly translates to "white pearl dumplings." It’s extremely easy to make, and pretty versatile in terms of what to accompany it with. Shiratama dango has a resilient yet smooth texture like mochi (surprise!). You can buy the sweet rice flour (called “shiratamako”) in Japanese grocery stores like Mitsuwa, or you can use the “mochiko” that Lori used for her mochi cake. Photographed here is a package of shiratamako that I purchased at Mitsuwa, in Arlington Heights.
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— Yu Kizawa /
Recipe Wed Jun 13 2007
My new green obsession has little to do with the environmentally-minded trends that have become so popular in recent months.
Until a few days ago, I've always preferred the red salsas over the green ones. But something happened and now I can't get enough salsa verde. So I made a giant batch of it yesterday, using a recipe supposedly attributed to Rick Bayless (I don't recall where I found it).
If you are a little less DIY-inclined, my two favorites for the tomatillo-based salsa verdes are Chef Earl's Salsa Verde and Frontera's Tomatillo Salsa.
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— Meghan Murphy Gill /
Recipe Tue May 29 2007
So, summer’s pretty much here and naturally the future-wife and I are out in the back yard, sitting in the sun, lazily sipping on beers, discussing what to make for dinner. After some misfires, the idea hits. It gets a lukewarm response at first, then it picks up steam. Within ten minutes we can’t get the idea out of our heads. Crabcakes.
My God, it’s lazy, sunny days like these that sweet and flaky crabcakes were invented to compliment. Perfect. But, we’ve got a whole week’s worth of groceries to pick up and a cross-town jaunt to the fancy-pants seafood market for air-mailed, big-dollar, fresh crab would just kill the moment at this point. It’s gonna have to be mid-grade, pasteurized, canned crab from a nearby supermarket. That’s not nearly as bad an idea as it sounds, because, once the cakes are assembled and cooked, only a seriously sophisticated palate will be able to distinguish our preserved crab from any that comes with a weekly “serve by” date. So, our search came down to price, naturally.
The brands and varieties we found were all suitable for our crabcake needs, but Trader Joe’s scored the best for offering the lowest prices and for stocking three types of canned crab meat. There’s a mid-grade, jumbo lump from Jack’s Catch for a city-wide low of $8.99/lb., a mid-grade, jumbo lump from Byrd International for the same price, and a higher-grade, body and claw blend from Byrd’s for $10.49/lb. (By comparison, Whole Foods offers only the Jack’s Catch, but asks $16.99/lb., and the only brand we were able to find at Jewel was from Chicken of the Sea for a ghastly $19.99 per ½ lb. tub.)
(Below the fold: Asian Crabby Patties with Avocado Lime Sauce recipe.)
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— Bryan Delano III /
If the well-stocked stalls at Evanston's Farmers Market is any indication, young garlics are now fully in season. On Saturday, almost all the produce stands boasted a pile of beautiful young garlic stalks. I wasn't quite sure what to do with them, but the pure white bulbs and the dewy green leaves were too much of an appeal to forgo, so I picked up a bunch from the stand of Henry's Farm, an organic farm in central Illinois.
If this were the tender flower stalks of garlic, I would lightly blanch them and marinate them with nam pla (Thai fish sauce) and sweet chili sauce. But as I cut the leaves, I realized that the leaves may be a bit too fibery for that. So I decided to make Chinese stir-fry. First, I made the sauce (a must for time-sensitive stir-fries): about 1/2 tablespoon of oyster sauce, 1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of sugar, a drizzle of sesame oil and a pinch of ground black pepper. This is for two people.
Then I sautéed minced ginger in oil, and added thinly sliced carrots and garlic leaves. When the veggies are about done, I stirred in three eggs, and poured in the sauce, quickly mixing all the ingredients together. Even after cooking, the leaves still retained the green and garlicky flavor, but it was much more understated than the flavor of fully mature garlic bulbs. Served with rice, the stir-fry brought the sense of season (that's nearly lost in this era of global food distribution) to our lunch table.
Now I'll have to figure out what to do with the remaining bulbs; I might try slicing them into marinade, as I would onions, or even using them raw in a salad.
— Yu Kizawa /
Recipe Mon May 21 2007
Sure, it's Monday, which probably means you'll be lucky if you have time to grab a bowl of cereal for breakfast for the next five days. That just means you have all week to look forward to a weekend brunch. But instead of going out this weekend, stay in, brew some coffee at home and try this delicious recipe for waffles made with cornmeal and bacon.
The recipe comes from the newest edition of Joy of Cooking, but I'm including my own notes, as I've prepared these waffles many, many times. I also like to serve these with whipped maple butter (and I've included a "how to" for that, as well).
The waffles served in bite-size pieces for this weekend's Beerfly Alley Fight.
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— Meghan Murphy Gill /
If you haven't given homemade Ethiopian food a try because of the sheer difficulty of mixing up a proper berbere, now is your chance. One of my favorite shops in Chicago, Kukulu Market sells the spice mixture in large quantities for a low price (around $6 for a pint-size container!). You can also purchase three large rounds of injera for only $1.50 and Niter Kebbeh, a delicious spiced butter. Whenever I bring home the spongy and sour flat bread made with tef flour, I feel such gratitude for the fact that I live in a city with such a multitude of foods and ingredients available. Kukulu also sells Ethiopian coffees, spices for chai and traditional coffee sets. It's located in Edgewater, home to a large Ethiopian community, on Broadway, right across from the Ethiopian Diamond.
If you have zero to little experience with Ethiopian food, the owners are delightful and love to talk about their food. Ask them questions and they'll be certain to give informative answers.
Or, you can use my recipe for Miser Wat.
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— Meghan Murphy Gill /
Recipe Sun May 20 2007
I'm a big fan of crumbly-topped cakes. When I was thinking about making a cake for a brunch party today, I thought of topping it with a streusel of pistachios ground with olive oil and emitting the certain gentle and lingering fragrance that only comes from cardamom. Thanks to plenty of coconut and olive oil, the cake is especially rich and moist with a terrific crumb.
The batter comes modified from the coconut cake on last year's Veggie Bike and Cook: a coconut cardamom pistachio cake. Replace all of the canola oil with olive oil for good measure. You'll get two cakes because that recipe is designed for stacking into a double-layer cake, but there's no need to stack this time. Forget the icing or frosting and use the streusel noted here - modified from the coffee cake topping in the Voluptuous Vegan.
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— Chris Brunn /
Thu May 10 2007
White peaches from California are available at Whole Foods in Lakeview right now, which means true Bellini cocktails are just a blender spin away. The famous Italian aperitif starts with a glass of cold Prosecco (an inexpesive sparkling wine from Italy), topped with a white peach nectar puree, and garnished with a berry or perhaps a little nugget of the stone fruit and a sprig of mint. Epicurious has a recipe from the Hotel Cipriani in Venice that is both simple and classic. Best make them quick. The white peach season is notoriously short.
— Christine Blumer /
Recipe Sun May 06 2007
Black mustard seeds are the black round dots. Split black gram is the oval black spots, one side round, the other flat - where the pulse was split into two.
I felt like making a quick but tasty breakfast this morning. Something that involved nothing more than light chopping and adding a sequence of ingredients to a hot pan. Something humbly seasoned, with a little nuts, seeds, fruit, vegetables and protein. Something that'd offer me some smiles but would quickly free me to hop back into bed with the newspaper.
Change the ingredients below to fit what you have in your kitchen. While usually plenty fun, leaving for groceries steals coziness from a meal in bed, regardless of whether you're alone or not. I started with the base from an upma recipe that I wrote about earlier: peanut oil, split black gram, mustard seeds and cashews. You may skip the black gram - but it adds a soft crunch. Replace the basil and curry leaves, use another seed like sunflower or sesame, substitute olive or canola oil, switch chickpeas (garbanzo beans) for tempeh, change hominy to cooked rice or ripped up small pieces of bread. Use color, like red onions, yellow raisins and green herbs. Make whatever changes are needed, so you don't have to leave your home (so long as you have some basics).
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Wed May 02 2007
You'll find upma for breakfast inside homes in parts of India. It's just as satisfying in Chicago - a savory, fluffy wholesome dish made from coarsely ground wheat. I had some cooking - the way I learned from Satya's mom in Bombay - as my friend Arline rolled in with Medjool dates, lovely tender olives and two spinach pies from the Middle East Bakery. We loaded a bounty of the dates - more than we could eat. "The feeling of plenty is always nice," Arline elaborated. As I bit into the spinach, the olive oil inside tasted incredible. "They know what they're doing with olive oil," Arline said. "They're not skimping."
Upma comes loaded with veggies, but they were mostly on vacation in my version this time - no peas or cauliflower like Satya's mom showed me because I didn't have them handy. This upma did have carrots - orange instead of the red Delhi carrots she used in India. Aside from my deviations, it turned out just as fluffy and tasty. You can find the wheat, called rava (labeled Upma Rava), from Patel Brothers on Devon Avenue - but you can also buy it as the coarsely ground wheat semolina that is more commonly found here. I've bought fresh curry leaves for this dish a few doors down at Fresh Farms. Upma's great with a side of plain soy yogurt; and it's good leftover cold. We ate it with cups of Nescafé, the instant coffee that seems big in India.
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Mon Apr 23 2007
The Chopping Block demonstrated an incredible two-layer vegan coconut cake on last year's Veggie Bike and Cook. Their recipe comes out incredibly moist and tender, with a nice crumb. I remember my pal Rose enjoying a large three-sized piece I'd made and frozen to save. "This is reminiscent of the olive oil cake in terms of texture," she said. "It's good, Chris. It's very good." My roomie Liz had added about 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice to the frosting that time.
Another time, my pal Meleah and I added cardamom, pistachios and a touch of salt to the recipe. We substituted 1/2 cup of the canola oil with olive oil. Meleah pedaled off to this cake's destination, a friend's party, with it still in pieces: the layers in the springform pans tucked into a milk crate on her bicycle's rack, a container of frosting and chopped pistachios for the topping. Meleah said, "It's one of the best cakes I've ever had! And it's got tofu in it!" We deviated from the Chopping Block's icing with an ad-hoc tofu cream cheese frosting that Meleah noted, "I don't think it gets much better than that." Below's the cake recipe, modifications from this version noted.
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Thu Apr 19 2007
I took today off to spend some time with my visiting pal Sujata. We kicked it off making the vegan yogurt pancakes that I wrote about earlier. We made a few key modifications that made these pancakes taste "really nutty" and "really good," as Sujata put it. We replaced 1/4 cup of the flour with chestnut flour that I've stored in the freezer since I bought it from Chestnut Growers at Green City Market last year. We also tossed in chopped up bittersweet chocolate and a handful of toasted pecans.
3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 cup chestnut flour
1+1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 ounces vanilla soy yogurt (I find Stonyfield's O'Soy to be the richest)
3/4 cup soy milk
1 ounce of a bittersweet chocolate bar, chopped
1 handful pecans halves (raw if you're going to toast yourself - see instructions)
oil for the pan
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Fri Apr 13 2007
Wake up and make your sweetie something special tomorrow. Cultures in soy yogurt give these pancakes a pleasant slightly tangy flavor. Turn on Jens Lekman's I Saw Her in the Anti War Demonstration; his lyrics, "with lukewarm English beer and vegan pancakes" go perfectly with these.
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Fri Apr 06 2007
There’s not all that many culinary occasions that call for brown sugar, but when it’s needed, there’s just no substitute. So, we all keep that box of brown sugar hidden away somewhere in the pantry or the fridge and pull it out a few times a year just to carve a couple of chunks from the rock-hard mass. Then it’s promptly sent back to kitchen purgatory to await the next batch of cookies, sweet potatoes, or glazed ham.
Improvising a hammer and chisel just to free a few tablespoons of sugary goodness can be maddening if not downright dangerous business. And if you’re anything like me, it’s guaranteed to be a messy, sugar-strewn affair.
(Insert your TV infomercial battle cry, “There’s Gotta Be a Better Way!” here.)
Yes, there certainly is.
The preferred method in our kitchen is to put a damp—not dripping—cloth over the top of the sugar bowl, placing the lid on top (bowls and jars are far classier than that old beat-up cardboard box the sugar came in a few years ago, right?). Leave it be for a few hours and you’ll find the brown sugar far more agreeable than it’s been. Leave overnight and it’ll be as friendly as the day you took it home!
If you’re in a hurry you can always pop the bowl, cloth and lid in the microwave for a minute, but be sure to heat at short intervals and watch vigilantly as it is sugar, after all, and is more than happy to melt. And if you don’t have a cloth or towel handy, or just dislike trees, you can always use a few paper towels.
— Bryan Delano III /
Recipe Sun Mar 11 2007
Despite the warm, sunny days we've had this weekend and the early arrival of daylight-saving time, winter is far from over. I try to remind myself of that so I don't break out the flip flops too early and end up getting caught barefoot in the inevitable early April blizzard. So I'm still compelled to make soups and other warming dishes to keep me toasty through the next few weeks. As I wondered what I could cook and freeze for easy dinners for the coming week, a big pot of curried lentils seemed perfect. I also just happened to have in my cabinet a giant bag of red lentils which I purchased quite a while ago at the Middle Eastern Bakery at the intersection of Clark and Foster. The variety of beans available there is staggering but I always gravitate toward lentils because they cook so quickly and don't need to be soaked for hours like other beans.
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— Dana Currier /
Recipe Sat Mar 10 2007
Heading to the South Side for the parade tomorrow? Don’t worry about trying to fit a Tupperware of juicy corned beef and cabbage into your backpack. Instead, pack up a bunch of tasty Reuben sandwiches and surprise your friends with a satisfying treat to soak up some of that green beer! Do it Chicago Style, courtesy of Vienna Beef.
The history of this delicious sandwich is much debated; read about it here.
— Mary Smith /
Recipe Sat Mar 10 2007
Don’t forget to set your clock ahead an hour tonight! Why not use that as a great excuse to try a make-ahead breakfast treat, so that when you do get up and realize what time it is, you can smile and crawl back under the covers because all you have to do is pop this dish in the oven and relax…
This egg and cheese strata recipe is totally basic; but you can easily dress up a strata with a layer of sautéed zucchini, asparagus, onions, garlic, or other tasty veggies. You can add salsa or a mix of hot chiles; you can put some ham, bacon, or other meat in there as well. Use this recipe as a starting point, and then let your imagination run wild!
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— Mary Smith /
Recipe Thu Mar 08 2007
If you're not of the Bridgeport-dwelling, Daley-endorsing, South Side Irish, but you're still hoping to pull out all the stops for St. Patrick's Day, have yourself a look at my aunt's recipe for corned beef (her notes included). It takes about a week, but it's easy to do as there's very little work involved. If you start this weekend, you have exactly enough time to prepare the beef in time for a "traditional" boiled dinner (Yeah, yeah, supposedly the real Irish don't actually eat corned beef and cabbage, but the real Irish celebrate the feast of St. Patrick by going to Mass, not by drinking green beer and donning kelly green everything).
"This meat is always tender and has just the right amount of salt to it," says my aunt Mary Lynn Lawless, supplier of the recipe. "It is easy enough to do and kids especially love to be the ones to stir the meat in the bucket."
The beef will appear more gray than the reddish corned beef you get at a deli, but it's delicious, and who can deny the kids a chance to "stir the meat in the bucket"?
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— Meghan Murphy Gill /
Recipe Sun Mar 04 2007
When Mark Bittman published a recipe for "No Knead Bread" in The New York Times dining section several months ago, all hell broke loose. Some proclaimed it a miracle, some argued that it didn't work, and some wondered if kneading was really all that difficult in the first place.
Several Chicagoans gave the recipe a try, but I was not among them. I have what you might call a difficult relationship with yeast, and so, even without the kneading, I was not convinced that this recipe would yield good results for me. So when I discovered Bittman's newest bread recipe, published in last week's New York Times, I was elated. This recipe was for quick bread, as in no yeast whatsoever.
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— Dana Currier /
Recipe Tue Feb 27 2007
Roasting a chicken can be deceptively simple. I've tried numerous variations of buttering, basting, and rotating espoused by Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, and lots of other fancy chefs, but never achieved the perfect combo of juicy meat and crispy skin. Until now. Even better, this "recipe" is simple enough for even the most unskilled cook. Legendary chef Thomas Keller of French Laundry fame offers My Favorite Simple Roast Chicken on epicurious.com for a limited time. Check it out. Eat it with a giant butter bomb Chardonnay from Carneros or Central Coast California.
One note: Check the reader reviews on this one. It's definitely best prepared in a gas oven that's been cleaned once or twice since the Clinton administration.
— Christine Blumer /
Recipe Wed Feb 21 2007
The cover story in the Trib's Good Eating section today is a big love letter to Spacca Napoli, the year-old very-thin-crust-pizza joint at Sunnyside and Ravenswood. And deservedly so; the pizza there -- crust light as air, toppings low in volume but high in flavor -- is sublime and certainly worth the hour wait that usually comes without a reservation. The article briefly talks about the recent rash of Neopolitan pizza restaurants in Chicago, where pizza trends have forever leaned toward the robust, and then segues into how to make this type of pizza at home.
Photo courtesy of Spacca Napoli
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— Sandy Weisz /
Recipe Tue Feb 13 2007
In the U.S. we eat waffles on a plate, with a slathering of syrup and, often, a side of bacon. In Belgium, waffles are sometimes eaten on a plate, if they come from the northern part of the country, and they're covered in powdered sugar, whipped cream or fruit. But the better tasting version of the Belgian waffle is sold from trucks or out of pastry-shop windows, wrapped in paper and eaten on the go. These are known as Gaufres Liegeoises, or Sugar Waffles from Liege, a city in the southern part of Belgium. Unlike the cakey northern waffle, the sugar waffle is dense and sweet. No topping needed. They’re made with large sugar crystals, or pearl sugar, which caramelize on the outside and form a glaze, but stay crunchy on the inside.
I lived in Belgium for three years and, of course, fell in love with the cheese, the beer and the waffles. It's not too hard to find the cheese or the beer in the U.S. The waffles: not so easy. I brought back a cookbook, "Everybody Eats Well in Belgium," and the intention to make some sugar waffles of my own. But every time I'd look at the recipe (and it's been six years), I'd slam the book shut and back away from the kitchen. So it was a special treat for me when my husband brought me to the sugar waffle shop he’d discovered in Lake View, called Baladoche (2905 North Clark St.)
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— Lori Barrett /
Recipe Sun Feb 11 2007
Valentine's Day is upon us, and instead of unloading lots of dough on long-stemmed roses or candlelight dinners, why not whip up some dough and make these cookies for your sweetheart? Though they demand a bit more labor than your average cookie, the extra work definitely pays off. The final product is worthy of any good bakery. You can fill these with any flavor jam, but for a cookie that replicates something you might find in a certain Swedish Bakery, I recommend using lingonberry preserves. They are tart, but not too tart, and sweet, but not too sweet, and can be obtained from any of the various Swedish food shops in Andersonville, including Wikstrom's and Erickson's. At about five bucks a jar, plus a few more for flour, sugar, butter, and pecans, this recipe makes for a perfect Valentine's Day treat that looks like (but doesn't cost) a million bucks.
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— Dana Currier /
Recipe Thu Feb 08 2007
Chicago food is taking me to India. More accurately, cooking Indian food with my pals in Chicago is taking me. I'm curious to see how much the dosas (thin and crispy crepe-like pancakes folded over, sometimes filled) differ in Bombay and Bangalore from Devon Avenue's Udupi and Mysore Woodlands. Even more interesting will be comparing the dosa differences among Indian cities. I imagine chutneys fresh off the streets, like produce fresh from Chicago's farmers' markets with flavors that will far exceed my expectations as set by commercially prepared varieties from Patel Brothers on Devon.
Three of my pals, two from Bombay and a third an American Desi, seeded this trip in a Chicago apartment last August. During a cooking session, one of them blended onions and garlic, and then moved them to a pot to sauté in hot oil for a very savory eggplant dish from back home. He let the onions darken and reduce, about 15 minutes. He had sliced globular Thai eggplants almost through to the stem a few times with parallel cuts, and started to roast them. It was his serious attention and patience that was about to make this dish amazingly tender and flavorful.
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— Chris Brunn /
Recipe Thu Feb 08 2007
I’m not sure there’s a better way than baking together to make a friend who’s new to Chicago feel right at home. Since both of us are vegans, we figured we’d convert a recipe together. How about madly, and serendipitously, succeeding with an olive oil cake that’s rich with flavor, extremely moist, light, fluffy, golden and delicious and 100% vegan? Here’s how:
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— Chris Brunn /
