From Chicago to Cleveland

Hello from Cleveland!

I never thought I'd ever say I live in Ohio. I always thought of it as a nice place to drive though, but not necessarily a place I'd want to live. Right now I consider myself halfway between here and there. Halfway between Chicago and "home." Or Virginia and "home." I'm not quite sure which at this point.

I'm dedicating this post to all my favorite things about Chicago. These were places I had to go to this summer before I left the city and also, places I will go to when I inevitably go back. This should also function, for anyone who doesn't live in Chicago, as a kind of insider's visitor guide. If you want to eat well in Chicago, go to these places! Please, no PF Chang's!

Doughnut Vault
400 1/2 N. Franklin, Chicago, IL 60654
http://thedoughnutvault.tumblr.com/



I had been meaning to try this place since I heard of it opening earlier this year. Nothing sounds better than a fresh-made doughnut. Now that I can't get them, I wish I had gone earlier and more often. Doughnut Vault operates out of the kitchen of Gilt Bar, another of my favorite Chicago restaurants. They open at 8:30 every weekday and later on weekends and close whenever they sell out, tweeting their progress along the way. Nothing is quite as titillating as seeing a constant feed of "come get these doughnuts" every morning, knowing full well that you are hundreds of miles away. Three dollars sounds like a lot for a doughnut, but trust me...they're worth it. One chocolate doughnut is enough to satisfy two people.



We tried a chestnut, chocolate, and gingerbread stack which is a stack of three smaller cake doughnuts. Jacob preferred these because they were less overtly sweet.

Edzo's Burger Shop
1571 Sherman Ave., Evanston, IL 60201
http://edzos.com/



Edzo's has won the hearts of Northwestern students since opening two years ago and I've been a loyal customer ever since. By now, his story is legend. Eddie Lakin, once fine dining restaurant chef, had a vision in which he could run a restaurant and still make it home in time for dinner with his family. His idea is simple: quality meat makes a great burger. Edzo grinds the meat fresh every morning. The result is an old-school burger and shake joint worth every calorie.

Jacob and I usually share an oreo shake and garlic fries (think french-fry drenched in garlic butter, nom) and each get a griddle burger. If his fry menu isn't enough, Edzo showcases his creativity every summer weekend by visiting the Evanston Farmer's Market and designing a Market burger based of the best seasonal ingredients he can find. My goal of the summer was to try one, but unfortunately Edzo was on vacation during my last weeks in Evanston. I guess I now have an excuse to make a special trip back next summer.

The Publican
837 W. Fulton Market, Chicago, IL 60607
http://thepublicanrestaurant.com/




The Publican, in Chicago tradition, holds a few things sacred: beer and pork. They employ what Graham Elliot recently described on Masterchef as "nose to tail cooking," a fad that utilizes all parts of the animal. This fad is taking hold at rustic upscale restaurants like this one and the infamous Girl and the Goat, because restaurants can make a huge profit off of the cheaper cuts of meat, like pork belly, blood sausage, and pig jowl, but also because they are fatty and delicious. The Publican also has an extensive list of oysters which for me was a very new experience. The Publican seeks to break even further our stereotypes of fine dining.



I met one of my new favorite beers here: Allagash Curieux, a beer brewed in bourbon barrels which adds that extra layer of complexity. We also tried a whiskey called "sortilege" which tastes like maple syrup. I tried blood sausage and my very first sweetbread, which I can't say I've really acquired the taste for yet. I played it safe with sea bass. We ended the meal with their house-made spicy pork rinds and a waffle that of course went perfectly with the whiskey. All-in-all quite a unique dining experience.



These are only the few places I managed to go to before I left town. I never made it to Hot Doug's, or back to Gilt Bar or Girl and the Goat. Someday when I can afford it I'll come back and hit up all these places in one trip. Until that day, I'll just fantasize about warm, fluffy doughnuts and garlic fries.

The Signature Dish

Summer is my favorite season for eating. Farmers' market visits are yielding produce for simple meals of sweet corn and BLTs, grilled zucchini, and my favorite snack food: pickling cucumbers with salt. While I should be taking this opportunity to blog about starting your own garden in an urban environment, the many uses for summer tomatoes and corn, everything you wish you knew about grilling, and of course our very own Evanston Farmers'Market, I have been instead preparing myself to leave Chicago behind and move to Cleveland to begin the next chapter of my life.

I'm supposed to be packing right now. I've already packed 5 boxes worth of stuff and it seems that none of it is stuff I've actually used in the last 15 months. The rest is all stuff that I use daily and don't want to pack away yet. I'm stuck in a void between the necessary and the unnecessary and it seems like the perfect time to catch up on my writing.

My summer has not actually been incredibly busy...not like last summer when I spent a week at home, a week in Ocean City, a few days in Colorado, a road trip to the Tetons, and a weekend in Orlando. This summer has been mostly spent cooking, watching Masterchef, and getting the most out of my last days in Chicago. (Oh! and practicing.)

I think each of those activities warrants a post to themselves and hopefully once I get settled in my new Cleveland apartment I can sit down and write a bit more. I will be lonely after all.

This post is slightly Masterchef-related however, as to get on the show, each contestant must create and serve their own signature dish to serve to the judges. I know exactly what mine would be: CHICKEN POT PIE.



When I first started to become interested in cooking when I was 12 or 13 (i.e. when my parents thought it was safe for me to do it myself), the first thing I wanted to make was chicken pot pie. I would always go to the freezer section of the grocery store and try a different chicken pot pie, but I was never satisfied with the gummy chicken and frozen vegetables. This should in theory be delicious, I thought. But nothing out there satisfied me. So I went through my parents cookbook collection, which included the infamous red-checkered Better Homes cookbook which no housewife in the past 50 years has been without, to find the perfect recipe to make the pie myself. I didn't find quite what I was looking for but decided to combine elements from two recipes to create my own.

My concept was was essentially to put everything good about chicken soup into a pie. It was a little juvenile, but the result was tasty and a favorite among my family and friends. Just a few months ago I decided to take what I've learned about modern cooking techniques and modify my recipe to make it even more flavorful, and to make it one I could be proud to share with the world.

Without further ado, Mary's Chicken Pot Pie:

Ingredients:
FOR THE CRUST
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 cups shortening
approx 1/4 cup cold water

FOR THE FILLING
2 Tbsp oil
2-3 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts
salt
pepper
5 stalks celery, large diced
1 fennel bulb, chopped (optional)
4 large carrots, large diced
2-3 Yukon gold potatoes, cubed
approx 48 oz. chicken broth (enough to cover chicken and veggies and yield at least 3 cups)
6 Tbsp butter
1 sweet onion, chopped
1/2 cup flour
(3 cups reserved broth)
1/4 cup heavy cream (optional)
1 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup frozen peas
1 ear of fresh corn, cut from the cob
1 egg or 1/4 cup milk

Directions:
Sift flour and salt together. Cut in half the shortening until like cornmeal. Cut in the rest of the shortening until pieces are the size of small peas.



Sprinkle a spoonful of water over part of mixture and gently toss with a fork. Push to side of bowl. Repeat til all is moistened. Form into a ball. Chill in the refrigerator.



Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Heat oil in a Dutch oven or very large saute pan. Season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Place chicken skin side down in the pan and brown 4-5 minutes per side. Remove from pan and set aside.



In the drippings, saute celery, fennel, and carrots until beginning to become tender, about 15 minutes. Place chicken on top of vegetables, add enough chicken stock to cover, then add potatoes and bring to a boil. Cover and let braise for 10 minutes. Remove chicken and set aside (cover with tin foil to preserve juices). Continue cooking, covered, until veggies are tender.





Strain the contents of the pan and reserve both the broth and the vegetables. You should have at least 3 cups of broth. If not, supplement with more canned broth.

Without cleaning the pan, melt 6 Tbsp butter and saute the onion in the same pan until translucent but not brown. Make a roux by stirring in the flour, allowing it to cook for about a minute. Then add 3 cups of the reserved broth all at once. Stir constantly until thick and bubbly. Add cream, salt, and white pepper. Do not allow to boil.



Remove the skin and bones from the chicken and coarsely chop (I like big pieces of chicken in my pie). Add chicken, peas and corn to the gravy first and cook for 2 minutes. Then add the braised vegetables and stir to combine.



TO ASSEMBLE THE PIES
Fill 4-6 ramekins with filling about 3/4 of the way up.



Cut the ball of dough into six pieces. On a floured surface roll out a piece until it is about 1/4 inch thick and big enough to cover your pot pies. Lay crust over the top of the ramekin and trim an inch around the edge of the ramekin. Tuck the excess crust under and pinch closed against the inside lip of the ramekin. Cut slits in the top to let out steam and brush with egg wash or milk.





Bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.



This chicken pot pie is the ultimate comfort food, but it always strikes me as a summer dish. The key is all the vegetables and the corn in particular. I always make this in the summer with really fresh sweet corn from the farmer's market. I've tried substituting a can of corn in the winter and the result it just not the same.

I also make a big batch for my family reunion every July. I can still hear my Uncle Jim, who died last summer, say "that's some good pot pie!"