A Brunch Beer You Can Feel Good About

Quench your thirst next Sunday with a Steigl Radler. It's one part beer, one part grapefruit soda and clocks in at a mild 2.5% alcohol. I like to call it the Poor Man's Mimosa for its sparkling, juicy qualities. It's quickly growing in popularity, not just as a day-drink, but as a boozy mixer in cocktail joints everywhere.

I ordered mine at Northside Social in Arlington, VA and Firkin in Libertyville, IL.

Mussels in Beer

Mussels in beer is standard gastropub fare in Chicago where the Belgian beer flows freely. But at home it makes a quick, "cheap," and versatile dinner for one. Feel free to substitute fennel for celery, thyme for bay leaf, or a cup of white wine for beer.

Any white ale would make a delicious broth. I used my favorite appley beer, Ephemere, but Hoegaarden or for my Clevelanders, Great Lakes Holy Moses would also be excellent.

Ingredients:
1 lb mussels
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 small sweet onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 bottle Belgian white ale
2 Tbsp flat-leaf parsley, minced
salt and pepper

Directions:
In a Dutch oven, heat the olive oil and butter and saute the onion, garlic, celery, and bay leaf until vegetables are translucent and beginning to brown.

Add the mussels and beer and cover. Steam for about 5-7 minutes or until most of the mussels open. Discard any unopened mussels. Top with the parsley and season broth with pepper and salt, if necessary.

Serve with crusty bread or crunchy frites to dip in the broth!

Happy Dog

What better way to transition from Chicago to Cleveland than with a big hot dog heaped with toppings?

Happy Dog in Cleveland (or as I like to call it, Chicago jr.) offers house made dogs with a daunting list of toppings, a community dive bar ambiance, and live music.

I went to support a friend playing with the organization Classical Music Revolution, which puts on chamber concerts in spots around Cleveland, including several bars. They aim to bring classical music to the people, making it more accessible, and enjoyable for audiences who wouldn't normally be exposed to it. Not to mention you feel like a rock star when you play for a raucous crowd.

I tried a peanut butter coffee porter, which actually tasted and smelled like carbonated coffee grounds.

Diners can embrace their inner chef by selecting as many toppings as can fit on their hot dog for only $5. I approached the task from my Chicago-style roots, using the famously topped dog as a template. My favorite parts remained - dill pickle spear and sliced tomato - with bacon-balsamic marmalade instead of mustard, grilled Spanish onions instead of raw onion, and blue cheese cole slaw on top for a little crunch.

My mouth was very happy, indeed.

Post-paper Rewards

This is how I celebrated finishing my papers Monday night. I had two papers due on the same day and somehow managed not to lose any sleep over them. I did, however, spend many a day in Starbucks for the only 4 days in a row that it was sunny in Cleveland.

I am starting to look fondly on the Cleveland skyline, on days when it is visible (even though it is nothing compared to Chicago). I managed to snag a picture from the parking lot behind my apartment, with the sun hitting the buildings as it went down below the ceiling of clouds. Doesn't really do it justice, but in case you were wondering what the city of Cleveland looks like...:

To accompany my fancy pumpkin/yam single beer, I got some olives to snack on. This is a truly acquired taste: one I haven't quite grown into yet, but since my dad likes them I'm sure one day I will love them too. When I was younger the only olives I would eat were at Thanksgiving; black olives that came out of a can and I ate them with lots of ranch dip, which sounds kind of gross now. I like kalamata olives in very small quantities in Greek salads, but I usually pick them out. Anyway, I enjoyed the artichoke hearts and about half of these olives before having to quit.

I am home now, which might mean less cooking, but more holiday cookie baking, best of 2011 lists, New Years resolutions, and all that good stuff.

Surf & Turf Anniversary-Style

Well, it's been three years since Jacob asked me to dinner for the first time. I remember I was very sick with the usual hacking cough and I think even a fever! But I had been admiring that cute tuba player from a distance for so long that I knew I had to go. Good thing I did!

Jacob came to Cleveland on Thursday night and I had an exciting weekend planned for us. I had braised pork belly ready for dinner on Thursday and tickets to the Cleveland Orchestra on Friday night. I made fresh pasta and the homemade meatballs I had frozen for dinner on Friday.

Jacob got me a cast-iron skillet for an anniversary present, which is awesome because previously, the only pan I had that could go from stove to oven was my Dutch oven. He also brought me a bottle of Allagash Curieux and a bottle of Black Currant Ephemere, which I thought was only available in Canada! The black currant colored the beer pink and made me think of sparkling grapefruit juice. It was super fruity, but with a "beer-y" finish, unlike its apple counterpart which is more floral.

On Saturday morning, we went to Cleveland's West Side Market, to look for dinner ideas. We bought some asparagus, scallops, and a steak and proceeded to surf and turf it up! Jacob had been wanting scallops ever since I showed him a recipe for seared scallops with goat cheese-yukon puree from Girl in the Kitchen. He's been lusting after goat cheese purees after having his favorite steak at Carnivale in Chicago which comes with malanga root-goat cheese puree. I've never seen a malanga root in its original form, but the puree was heavenly.

We spent Saturday afternoon in the kitchen, drinking our Ephemere, watching TV, and making dinner. The scallop technique was lifted from Girl in the Kitchen, but everything got a little tweak.

IZARD-INSPIRED GOAT CHEESE-YUKON PUREE
Ingredients:
1 lb. yukon gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 cups chicken stock
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup half & half
3 oz. soft goat cheese
salt and pepper

Directions:
Bring the chicken stock, potatoes, and 1 tsp salt to a boil and simmer, covered for 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over low heat, combine goat cheese and half & half, stirring occasionally until goat cheese has melted into the cream.

Drain potatoes and return to pan. Mash immediately, adding the goat cheese mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside and keep warm.

THE TURF

I'm kind of a meat n00b when it comes to cooking. I'm hoping that this new cast-iron skillet will allow me to practice my meat cooking skills so I can hypothetically audition for Masterchef some time and not make a fool out of myself!

Ingredients:
1 Delmonico steak, about 1-1 1/2 in. thick
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil

Directions:
Season steak with salt and pepper. Marinate steak in soy sauce and garlic, covered in the fridge for about 2 hours. Let steak come to room temperature before cooking.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In oven-safe skillet, heat the olive oil on high heat. Dry the steak with a paper towel (re-season if necessary), and sear in the skillet for 2-3 minutes. Flip and immediately transfer to the oven. Let cook for 6-7 minutes and remove. Let meat sit (it will continue cooking in the pan, so remove it or leave it as you see fit based on its doneness).

ASPARAGUS IN AJI AMARILLO VINAIGRETTE
Ingredients:
1 dried aji amarillo chile
1 Tbsp champagne vinegar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 lb. asparagus trimmed and sliced diagonally into 1 inch pieces
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Remove stem and seeds from chile and reconstitute in a bowl of very hot water for 5 minutes. In a food processor combine chile, vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use (this can be done well in advance)

Heat olive oil in a saute pan and saute asparagus for 5-7 minutes, until just tender. Season with salt and pepper. Toss in a bowl with enough vinaigrette to coat and set aside, reseason if necessary.

THE SURF
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp olive oil
6 sea scallops
salt and pepper
2 Tbsp butter

Directions:
I'll quote Stephanie on how to best sear a scallop, since her directions were very clear and fool-proof! I was very proud of what I accomplished because of her.

"Pat the scallops dry and season both sides with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan over high heat. Add the scallops to the hot pan. (Avoid overcrowding the scallops in the pan. If they are too close together, they will steam instead of sear. Sear them in batches if the pan is not big enough to hold them all at once.) Let the scallops brown for 1 minute, then reduce the heat to medium. Continue to cook until a brown crust forms. Add the butter to the pan. Turn the scallops over to brown the other sides. While browning, spoon the melted butter over the tops of the scallops to baste them. Remove them from the pan once you've basted them well and all edges are nice and browned."

Since I had my hands busy, Jacob was my food photographer throughout the process and took all these awesome pictures. He likes to make fun of me for the way I say scallop, with an "a" as in "hall," instead of scallop with an "A" as in "hat." I think it's just one of those words like "Halloween" that some people just say differently. Either way we get to make fun of each other whenever the word comes up, and marvel at the many inconsistencies in the English language.

Think Like a Chef

Well, it's officially fall, and the rainiest September in recent memory has ushered in a chilly and gray October. Our new autumn weather has put me in the mood for changing leaves, fresh apples, and pumpkin spice lattes. I have this Bath & Body Works soap in my bathroom that smells like Macintosh apples and every time I use it, my taste buds go crazy for some crisp apples.

When I bought the chicken thighs to make the Chicken with Tomatoes and Peppers while Jacob was visiting, I could only find a family pack, so I stuck half of them in the freezer for the next time I made that recipe. But the idea of braised chicken thighs had my mouth watering (I don't think I eat enough protein regularly).

I caught sight of a cookbook on my shelf, Tom Colicchio's Think Like a Chef, which my brother had gotten me for Christmas. I hadn't really used it much (just drooled over it) because it features a lot of ingredients not readily available to me: morels, ramps, sorrel, etc. But I remembered that the main premise of the book is teaching universal cooking techniques and leaving the ingredients up to the "chef." Immediately, I fixated on the idea of braising chicken in hard cider.

But then I remembered the popular gastropub dish of moules frites, or mussels and fries which Chicago restaurants have modified to use Belgian white ales, celery, and bay leaf instead of the classic white wine and garlic version. I cast my net out on facebook taking a poll on which - Belgian white or hard cider - would taste better with chicken and I got pretty mixed results. But by asking the question I had given myself the "right" answer: my favorite beer, Unibroue Ephemere!

Ephemere is a Belgian white ale made with apples, but doesn't have the intense cider flavor. Instead, it is delicate and floral, with all the usual orange peel and coriander notes usually found in a Belgian white.

Once that was settled, I just had to wait until I found time to work on my culinary "experiment." In the mean time, I read Stephanie Izard's cookbook and found extra inspiration to combine unusual ingredients and marry the savory and the sweet. That's when I decided that ordinary mashed potatoes to accompany such a dish would be a wasted opportunity to do something really fun! And thus, a recipe was born!

Ephemere Braised Chicken with Sweet Potato-Celery Root Puree

For the Chicken:

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 oz. prosciutto, coarsely chopped
4 chicken thighs
1 leek, sliced about 1/8 inch wide (white and light green parts only)
2 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
1 12 oz. bottle Unibroue Ephemere
1-2 cups chicken stock (enough to surround, but not cover chicken)
2 bay leaves
bunch of fresh thyme
salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Rinse chicken and pat dry. Season with salt and pepper just before ready to brown.

Heat oil in Dutch oven and cook prosciutto until browned. Remove the prosciutto and set aside.

Place the seasoned chicken skin-side down in the same pot and brown 5-6 minutes a side over medium heat. When brown on both sides, remove and set aside.

Add leeks, carrots, and celery to the rendered chicken juices and sautee until beginning to become tender, about 10-15 minutes. Add the Ephemere (minus a swig), bay leaf, and prosciutto and simmer until reduced by about half, about 7 minutes.

Place the chicken skin-side up on top of the vegetables and pour in the chicken stock to surround but not cover the chicken. Season with salt and pepper (about 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper). Nestle the thyme in the center. (If you don't have kitchen string to tie the thyme in a bundle for easy removal, find a long piece of thyme and carefully tie it around the rest of the bunch. It should hold.)

Bring to a boil on the stovetop and then place in the oven uncovered. Let it braise for 1.5 hours, keeping an eye on how much liquid is left. You may have to place the lid on it and/or add some more chicken stock.

For the Sweet Potato-Celery Root Puree:

Ingredients:
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 celery root, peeled and large diced
2 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 cups chicken stock
3/4 cup apple cider
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp butter
1/4-1/2 cup half and half

Directions:

Place first 6 ingredients in large pot and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until tender. (Cut celery root into smaller pieces because it usually takes longer to cook).

Drain and mash immediately. Add butter, half and half, and season with black pepper.

Assemble your dish!

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.

Unibroue

Beer just might be one of the biggest acquired tastes out there. And I'm not talking about the Keystone Light you undoubtedly drank in large quantities before you were legally allowed to. Not that anyone does that.

It's also incredibly easy to be snobby about, simply because there are so many different kinds, you're bound to find a favorite that few people have tried yet. I can't say that I have tried all that many yet, but I know enough to say that I love beer.

Last summer (before my 21st birthday, and therefore before my foray into beer [because I'm a good girl]), I was at a concert in Millennium Park - Chicago's oasis for free music and open alcoholic beverages in public - I tried some La Fin du Monde that one of Jacob's friends had brought. I remember distinctly that it tasted faintly like banana to me, and since I hate bananas, I hated that beer. Now, as I sit here drinking the very same thing, I first and foremost taste...well, beer. I don't taste anything remotely banana-y. If that's not a great example of an acquired taste, I don't what is. That's not to say that La Fin du Monde just tastes like beer. It is complexly fruity and spicy.

Unibroue, the brewery responsible for La Fin du Monde, is a Canadian brewery that makes some of the most effervescent brews I've tasted. Ephemere, an apple scented Belgian white ale, remains my favorite. It tastes like summer in your mouth. But even the dark beer, Trois Pistoles, has a sparkle to it unique among those heavier dark beers. I've also had Don di Dieu which is sweeter than La Fin du Monde, with a subtle apricot flavor.

Beer is just so refreshing, it's hard not to like in my opinion. Gotta try 'em all!