Cook Off Round Two

Before Cristina and Juan returned home to Madrid, we wanted to have another go at the competition - except that this time there was no voting and there were two new cooks. Therefore, we each made a dish and I, for one, had a blast focusing on just one. 

We drew numbers and I served the first:

Grilled squid stuffed with ground lamb, almond cream, cilantro aioli, deep fried shallot rings. It turned out exactly as I had hoped (making it the week before helped) the problem was that Kathy is highly allergic to almonds which I didn't know until I started sprinkling almonds on top. Too bad because the almond cream was the best part!

Kathy made scallops on a bed of spinach with, I think, a hoisin sauce.

Gus slow-cooked short ribs for three days! Served with heirloom tomatoes, olive oil and vinegar caviar (he froze the vinegar in a syringe). Really cool technique.

Paul finished with molten chocolate cakes, raspberry puree, raspberries and vanilla ice cream. Only Juan was able to finish his portion.

Fun times - we look forward to their return some day and another food fest!

Besties

Heather was the first neighbor that I met when we moved to Chicago - she knocked on the door and asked to use water for her (public) garden next door! OK, I thought, this is the Midwest, people are friendly and - maybe - water doesn't cost so much here (at the time the house wasn't metered which I didn't know).

Nearly eight years later (and many, many good times together), they asked us back to the old hood for  dinner. I brought the first dish which will appear in the next post.

2. Cucumber Gazpacho

3. Red and Yellow Goat Cheese Salad with Pistachios

4. Veal Scallopini with Brown Butter, Capers, Yellow Squash and Polenta

5. Lavender Ice Cream

I shouldn't pick favorites - they were all fabulous - but that ice cream was out of this world! Then I think of the veal and that was sublime and I'm always a sucker for beets. Not to mention the gazpacho was the perfect soup for an early summer evening.

You may wonder about the plates: John's mother passed away this year so they drove to Los Angeles recently and claimed (my word) these dishes - plus several cool paintings.

Such a wonderful evening with wonderful friends - but I'm not having them here until they are neighbors.

Sunday

A seriously beautiful day in Chicago! I didn't really plan a dinner for the two of us but knocked it out of the park (for a change). Some young asparagus and frozen Tilapia needed a home (meal) so I made a risotto starting with scallions then the asparagus. Removed them then added the rice (with a little more oil), then the chicken stock. A little bit at a time. On the side I slowly poached the fish in oil. After all of that (really quite easy) I added the infamous ginger / scallion sauce. Plated it, topped with fish and sprinkled those spicy rice krispies on top.

Delicious - especially for a beautiful, early spring day.

Chicago Cook Off

North versus South, young versus old, evil versus good. The rules were simple: each cook prepares two  savory and one sweet dish. Seven guests voted: 16 - 15. The North one - except that one guest didn't get to complete his ballot because the dogs needed walking and, when he had returned, the ballots had been whisked away. Hmm....

First Dish:

Grilled Broccoli, Blue Cheese, Crispy Rice Krispies

Edamame, Mint, Preserved Lemon

Green Beans, Fish Aioli, Cashews

Second Dish:

Serrano Beef Lettuce Wraps

Third Dish:

Lemon Poached Salmon, Cauliflower Puree, Ginger / Scallion Sauce

Fourth Dish:

Pork Sliders, Rainbow Asian Slaw

Fifth Course:

Raspberry Millefeuille

Last Course (FInally):

Six Hour Roasted Pork Belly, Goats Milk Caramel, Miso Glazed Bacon, Raspberries

Home Alone

It was a quiet, cold Saturday night... asparagus was $1.49 and I already had some shrimp so:

blanch 1/2 lb asparagus, set tips aside

puree with 2TB butter and 2TB pesto

saute (1) onion and (3) diced garlic cloves

add 1C of arborio rice

add 1/2C white wine and reduce

slowly add 4C chicken stock, one cup at a time and cook until the liquid is gone

stir in butter

serve with asparagus tips and romano

(sorry for the fuzzy picture - I really need a better system)

Friends

Kathy and Ron (from Boston) were in Chicago yesterday, wrapping up a conference so they came for dinner. Ron follows this blog and had high expectations, LOL. Of course, I forgot to take a photo of them so here is an older photo:

BLT Soup (Apple tomato soup, spinach chiffonade and Spam croutons). I made the croutons ahead of time (as usual) but reheated them this time and they were greasy.

Seared Scallops, Spicy Goats Milk Caramel and Smoked Mexican Sea Salt:

Brined and Grilled Pork Loin with Ginger / Scallion Sauce and Toasted Rice Krispies, Cauliflower Puree (not shown) and Green Beans with Fish Aioli and Cashews (also not shown):

Coffee and Donuts (coffee ice cream, glazed donut pancakes and coffee / raspberry sauce):

This and That

Herewith are some recent meals that I won't go into (much) detail about:

Ikea meatballs ("from US sources only using beef and pork"), wide noodles and spinach.

I love these wide, Amish-style noodles - and, of course, the meatballs. Nayyyyyy!

Seared chicken with orange sauce, spring rolls, mushrooms and bok choy.

This was a lot of work because of the spring rolls - my first time. Better to do them with something else. It was all fantastic though.

Braised lamb shanks, curried cauliflower and grape gremolata.

Gremolata is an Italian condiment made from herbs, lemon zest, garlic and - in this case - grapes and mint. I didn't have curry (thought that I did) so I used turmeric. The sauce was delicious, the gremolata not so much.

Grilled flank steak, sauteed spinach, tomato and cashew soubise.

Soubise is the French version of risotto - it's baked with lots of sliced onions and diced tomatoes for 90 minutes (the cashews are sprinkled on after). Couldn't be easier.