28 December 2011

Vegetable and chickpea curry

Several of my favorite people are vegetarians and I too often find myself scratching my head about what to serve when they come to dinner. As a result, I've spent a fair amount of time hunting for interesting vegetarian options.  I stumbled onto this recipe from Cooking Light and was pleasantly surprised to find that with a few tweaks we could enjoy a very healthy, veggie-filled meal that was still hearty enough to feel like a winter comfort food.  The ingredients and instructions below are my updated version.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
6 carrots, sliced (1/4 inch thick)
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Anaheim pepper, seeded and minced
3 cups cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
2 medium baking potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (14-ounce) can vegetable broth
3 cups fresh baby spinach
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
6 lemon wedges

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and carrot; cover and cook 5 minutes or until tender. Add curry powder, sugar, ginger, garlic, and Anaheim pepper; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Place onion mixture in a 5-quart electric slow cooker. Stir in chickpeas and next 8 ingredients (through broth). Cover and cook on HIGH 6 hours or until vegetables are tender.

 The chickpea and vegetable mixture, ready for its last ingredients

Add spinach and greek yogurt; stir until spinach wilts. Serve over Basmati rice with lemon wedges.

23 December 2011

Before and after: smaller guest bedroom

Finally, a year and a half after moving in, we've finished redoing our first room! I know, I know. It took long enough. But with our crazy travel schedules and long work hours its taken a long time to get any of the changes we wanted to make underway. Just a few days before Christmas I put the finishing touches on our office/smaller guest bedroom.

Remember the before, complete with fabulous sun and moon wallpaper border and blue aluminum blinds.

Before

And now, the after. A new paint job, new dark wood blinds and best of all - NO WALLPAPER.

The "guest room" part of the room, complete with your own cat

The "office" part of the room
What do you think?

21 December 2011

Soft gingersnaps

Generally, I'm not a fan of gingersnaps. They get stale quickly and within a day or so go from tasty cookie to something with which you could bludgeon a robber.  At least that's how I felt until I found this little gem of a recipe. They are soft, delicious and as close to perfect as a cookie gets. I took these to my office holiday party and received RAVE reviews.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Additional sugar

Using a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar. If you don't have stand mixer, you can use a hand mixer, but be mindful that this batter gets very heavy and thick and might burn out an old or less powerful hand mixer. Add eggs, one by one, beating well after each addition. Beat in molasses.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt and nutmeg; gradually add to creamed mixture.


Refrigerate the dough for one hour.  Roll into one inch balls. Roll each ball in sugar. Place two inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.


Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for two minutes before moving to cooling racks.

12 December 2011

Tru(th) be told, I liked Boka better

Since B and I flew in and out of Chicago to attend his sister's wedding, we decided it would be a great opportunity to steal a little bit of time just the two of us.  This was a tough decision to come to because we have so many friends in Chicago that we love and would like to have seen. But it's been a long year with too many hours work, too many miles traveled individually and not nearly enough time spent just enjoying each other.  So we decided to keep our trip, which was quick anyway, just between us, in spite of all the wonderful people we wanted to see while there.

Xoco or proof that food doesn't have to be expensive to be fabulous

We arrived in Chicago in time to check into our hotel on the Magnificent Mile and grab a late lunch.  We had done some online research before arriving and decided to give Rick Bayless's downtown cafeteria style spot, Xoco, a try.

Taking our position in line, we had just enough time to decide on our tortas and order before our places in the 40-seat restaurant were available.  B chose the Pepito torta, a crusty sandwich filled with braised shortrib, caramelized onion, Jack cheese and black beans.  I selected the Choriqueso torta, a mash up of house-made chorizo, roasted Poblano peppers and tomatillo salsa.  Both were unbelievable.  The meat in B's sandwich was so tender it fell apart and the caramelized onions added a delicious sweetness.  My sandwich was the spicier of the two.  Packed with heat, I had a hard time putting it down.  In fact, had B and I not agreed to share both sandwiches I would have mowed through both halves without a second thought.

Xoco's wood firing oven where every delicious torta is made

Boka, a return to our roots

The year that B and I lived in Lincoln Park, a new restaurant - Boka - sprang up right across the street from our apartmentWe went in for drinks a couple of times, but at the time we were so poor we could scarcely afford a glass of wine. We never even considered eating there, it wasn't an option.

But this restaurant, new in 2004, is still there and getting rave reviews. It was awarded its first Michelin star last year.  So we couldn't pass up an opportunity to try it now that we wouldn't be forgoing rent money to do so.

We arrived in time for our 7PM reservation and were seated in a cozy corner booth near the rear of the restaurant. It was a great spot to enjoy some intimate conversation and reminisce about our days in Chicago.  We enjoy that particular kind of reminiscing because, in retrospect, we were seriously strapped for cash, overworked (I was in grad school and working full time for the Senate and B was working 80 hours a week on a campaign) and so damn happy. I'm not saying we're uphappy now, it's just a different kind of happy. We're real adults now with all the responsibilities that entails.  Back when we lived in Chicago, we had all the freedom of adults but not nearly as much of the reality that comes with it.

One short trip down memory lane later, we were greeted by a friendly server who, in addition to answering some questions about the a la carte menu, explained the three, six or nine-course Chef's tasting menus.  Basically, you just tell them what you don't like (or in my case are allergic to) and they create the requisite number of dishes without any additional intervention from the customer.  We chose the six-course menu with the wine pairing and sat back to await the surprise of each course.

First Course: Quartet of sushi and seafood

This will be one of the last photos, as darkness became increasingly problematic

Clockwise from the lower right we enjoyed a British Columbian oyster with a yuzu glaze; yellowtail with edamame, sesame and white grape; red snapper carpaccio with black truffle; and adobo seared tuna with king crab nori roll.  

Every single bite was bursting with flavor. B's favorite - hands down - was the oyster. He described it as a fresh blast of ocean.  I fell in love with the adobo seared tuna.  Perfectly prepared, the seasoning was robust yet somehow didn't overpower the tuna and king crab's subtle flavors.  Everything about this box was incredible.  With a first course like this we couldn't wait to see what else was on the way!

Second course: Steel head trout


Our second course was composed of a small piece of perfectly seasoned steel head trout with exceptionally crisp skin.  It shared the plate with celery root puree, curried leeks, seafood dumplings and pickled crosnes.  The first bite was a little bit of everything and it was exquisite - a perfect balance of flavors.  Tasting each item individually however, revealed that the leeks were the best thing on the plate. I should be raving about the trout, and don't get me wrong, it was very, very good, but the leeks had more flavor than any vegetable I have ever encountered. 

Third course: Sweetbreads

Next to the table was a small assortment of veal sweetbreads served with roasted figs, celery root puree,  broccoflower and wild mushrooms.  

If you can put aside the idea of what you're eating, this is a dish I would recommend without question.  Sweetbreads, when prepared properly as Boka certainly did, are tender and succulent. The most interesting element of this plate was the juxtaposition between the mushrooms and the sweetbreads.  The earthy bite of the mushrooms against the soft, buttery texture of the sweetbread made the whole dish.

Fourth course: Lamb

When considering the a la carte menu, the lamb loin with poached milk belly, arancini, broccoli hash and black garlic sauce was high on my list.  And lo and behold, a very similar creation appeared as our fourth course.  The lamb was a perfect medium rare.  But the star of this dish, again, was the vegetable.  Likely packed full of butter, the broccoli hash had all the sweetness of a broccoli floret and none of the bitterness of the stems.

Fifth course: Beef Tenderloin

Our last savory course arrived bursting with meaty flavor.  Again, perfectly prepared, the medium rare beef tenderloin could be cut with a butter knife.  Add to it a tiny Yorkshire pudding, savoy cabbage and Cipollini onions and you have a truly incredible set of flavors.  The highlight of this dish was the beef, yet I found myself wondering how the cabbage was prepared that it had none of the normal, almost slimy texture of cooked cabbage (something I generally don't like).  It was delicious.

Sixth course (bonus course): Panna cotta

This was the most unexpected course. An addition from the Chef, our first sweet course could have happily ended the meal for me.  Made with yogurt, this panna cotta was tangy and rich without being overpoweringly sweet.  Topped with a gelee and fresh grapes, it was extremely refreshing and a great way to clear the palate.  

Seventh couse: Chocolate Ganache

The last course - we were SO full at this point! Maybe that's why this course felt like it missed the mark.  But the Chocolate ganache with flourless chocolate cake and horchata ice cream just seemed a little one-note after all of the incredible combinations of flavors we'd enjoyed throughout the evening. Sure, it was decadent, but it just didn't hold up to scrutiny the way every other dish had.

Three hours, seven courses and seven wine pairings later we were back on the street looking for a cab, feeling gluttonous but extremely satisfied.  What a fabulous way to wander down memory lane, coming back to our old neighborhood to try this tremendous restaurant (which really, really deserves that Michelin star).

Tru(ly) a little ovepriced

For our last meal in Chicago before heading home the following morning, we made a reservation at Tru in Streeterville.  Right down the street from our last apartment in Chicago before moving to the East Cost (are you seeing a theme here?), this restaurant has been receiving accolades for as long as I can remember.  We had to give it a try.

We arrived in just a few minutes past our 730PM reservation time - evidently we'd forgotten just how long it takes to cross Michigan Ave - and were ushered into the lounge to wait for our table.  In just the five minutes we spent in the lounge we caught sight of three men in tuxedos and an Ambassador in full regalia.  We joked about the irony of living in the DC area and never running into an Ambassador, but in Chicago he walked in like he owned the place.  But we didn't have much more time to contemplate it as our table was ready.

First a comment about the service. In addition to excellent food, this is what you're paying for at a restaurant like Tru. Over the course of our two hour meal we had no less than a half dozen sets of hands ensuring our every need was met and that doesn't even include the Sommelier.  This type of service began from the moment we sat down and were greeted by our Barack Obama look-alike server.

Since we had been over the top with our Thursday evening meal at Boka, we decide to stick to the a la carte menu for the evening and after several discussions with our waiter and sommelier decided on a first course and entree a piece as well as an exceptional bottle of Pinot Noir.
B chose the duck consommé with confit and foie gras ravioli as his first course and the wild Scottish hare as his main. I selected the Grass fed beef carpaccio with yuzu and aged white truffle balsamic for my first course and braised Wagyu beef short ribs as my main.

Unsurprisingly, the timing of our meal was perfect, with the appropriate lull between courses to savor the flavors. For B, the duck consommé was the stand out, packed full of earthy duck flavors and rich bites of foie gras. His main arrived with a lot of whimsy on the plate. The hare and its accompaniments were arranged to look like a Scottish moor. While it was well prepared and delicious, the portion was disappointingly small for the exorbitant price. In fact, we found this to be true of every dish all evening. We're used to fine dining portions which don't and should not compete with the modern American portion of whole sides of beef, but even for fine dining these were extra dainty. For me the highlight was the short ribs. Braised 72 hours, this was the most succulent, tender meat I have ever encountered, all four bites of it.

We rounded out our evening with a selection of three cheeses, a cow, a sheep and a goat milk cheese. Each was delectable in its own right, but as I capture this only the goat cheese made high in the Pyrenees stands out in memory. Rich and nutty, I could have eaten it all night.

Our last course was a shared dessert and like most fine dining establishments, the pastry chef did not disappoint with the honey crisp apple beignets. Served with smooth homemade vanilla bean ice cream, these new French pastries were an excellent blend of flaky and buttery on the outside with warm and gooey on the inside and a lovely high note on which to finish our meal.

While I understand the accolades Tru receives for the flavor and presentation of its food, I wouldn't go back. Yet I would happily duplicate the Boka experience. For about 60 percent of the price of Tru we had an incredible, stand out meal at Boka, complete with every flavor you could want and nearly as much of the fine dining experience.

09 December 2011

Congratulations A & D!

The second weekend in December, Ben and I hopped a plane to Chicago to attend his youngest sister A's wedding in Kalamazoo. They had a quick but sweet ceremony at the County courthouse followed by plenty of pictures and a lovely lunch at a local Italian restaurant.  We got to spend some time chatting with the happy couple over lunch and even got to spend a little time with Ben's mom, uncle and sister B.

Congratulations A and D. May you find many, many years of marital bliss ahead of you!