After the successful (guided) brewing and bottling of our first Porter Ale at Bev Art, we thought we would attempt to brew at home. With limited instructions in the kit (a Christmas gift), several foibles (check out the duct tape above) and some advice from the internet, I am hopeful that we will have a good summer beer to drink in a few weeks. Brewing beer really isn’t that difficult. It is just a lot of boiling and stirring…a 5 gallon tub of tea, if you will. However, sanitation is crucial (which made us paranoid) and some of the instruments are confusing for the first time user…especially when there is no illustrated guide included. We had to search around on the internet to find pictures to figure out how certain pieces went together.
Sanitizing our instruments
The grain bag…which you basically just have to dunk in a boiling pot of water to “steep” for a while
Smells like beer! Hopefully it turns into beer…
Cooling the brew down before putting yeast in
Now we’re in our second fermentation (basically in a giant water bottle) and it looks like ABV is about 3.9% (a little lower than standard but still alcoholic!)
Last weekend I tried our porter, which Joel has dubbed “A Movable Feast”. Tasty but still needs to sit a little more to carbonate further.
I went to Belize in 2008 with three of my best girl friends and we fell in love with Marie Sharp’s Hot Sauce. Supposedly, the secret ingredient is carrots. Whatever it is, I find the hot sauce much more robust than something like Tabasco or Frank’s (though they both have their time and place). Last year, I ordered more bottles of Marie Sharp’s online and also found Marie Sharp’s Belizean Season All which is basically a wet rub for meats. I finally broke it out yesterday and made a roast chicken smothered in the Belizean Season All (basically a blend of anatto, vinegar, onions, spices, garlic and salt).
I threw the chicken in the oven, we went for a run and on the way back, stopped at the local panaderia for some torta bread. Lunch was shredded, Belizean roast chicken on top of Mexican torta bread with wasabi mayonnaise, sliced avocados and Vietnamese pickled daikon and carrots. Joel’s sandwich also included Frontera salsa and pepper jack cheese. The sandwich was a bit big for me so I ate half for lunch and the other half later in the day. I also sauteed some sliced zucchini in chicken drippings and seasoned it with salt and pepper. I love zucchini!
When we get a chance to go to the Korean market, I’d like to pick up ingredients for Korean tortas…and more Korean tacos! We made Korean tacos last year but only took Blackberry photos.
Last week at The Publican, we had the Provencal fish stew with salt cod, shrimp, crab, clams, wild onions, potatoes and aioli which was quite delicious. Yes, they specialize in porky goodness but since this was my third time eating there, the stew was one of the dishes I still hadn’t tried yet.
After subsequent meals of booze ($10 all you can drink for 2.5 hours!), bar food, Pequod’s pizza, ballpark nachos and BBQ, I needed to follow up with something light…that also soothed my craving for more of that Provencal fish stew. I’ve had this recipe bookmarked for a while and a little over a pound of tilapia in the freezer. I picked the rest of the ingredients during my ceviche shopping trip.
As usual, my modifications:
- Used a half quart of homemade fish broth from Dirk’s, which is twice as much as the 8 oz. of clam juice called for in the recipe
- Added 2 thinly sliced leeks in with the onions and garlic. Clearly, I was pretty tipsy at The Publican because I thought I remembered leeks in the soup. Oh well, this was a tasty addition though it might have sweetened up the soup a bit much
- Added a shallot (of course) and an extra clove of garlic
- Supplemented my tilapia with some jumbo shrimp to get the seafood up to 1.5 lbs.
- Probably ended up using 1.5 cups of fresh tomatoes and 3 tbsp. of tomato paste
- Served with crusty sourdough baguette which I tore into little pieces and mixed into the soup when I was ready to serve
This is an amazingly quick and easy to make light soup that’s great in any weather. From start to finish it probably took less than fifteen minutes. It was soooooo tasty I was sad that there were no leftovers. The other nice thing is that its very flexible. You can use any seafood you want. If you don’t have fresh tomatoes, you can substitute canned tomatoes. Throw in whatever vegetables you want–maybe some potatoes in the winter or corn in the summer?
This weekend, I had a friend visiting from out of town. After a long night (dinner at The Publican + drinks before and after), I thought we’d treat our sluggishness with some tortas from Rick Bayless’ new restaurant, Xoco. Through a series of illogical decisions I blame on the after-effects of our previous evening, we ended up at Frontera Grill, another one of RB’s restaurants next door. After righting ourselves with some coconut mojitos, we enjoyed some pretty tasty food, including his trio of ceviches.
On Saturday, after watching the Cubs lose at Wrigley Field, I came home to find that the DVR had recorded a Rick Bayless show all about ceviche. Needless to say, I was craving some more ceviche by Sunday morning. I may have even dreamed about it (ok, I definitely did). A trip to Dirk’s for some fresh halibut plus a stop at Stanley’s Fruit & Vegetables and I had everything I needed to make Rick Bayless’ classic ceviche (which he also demonstrated on his special). I halved the recipe , used a yellow onion (which I ended up picking out anyway because I dislike raw onions), used jalapenos and omitted the olive oil–turned out great!
My tips:
- Make sure you get really fresh fish. I’m not sure I even trust Whole Foods on this. My distrust of raw fish from the supermarket has been the main reason I have never made ceviche before. Dirk’s is where its at.
- Getting 3/4 cup of lime juice by hand is not easy. We went out and bought a juicer after the fact. It isn’t electric and its just the cone thing, but it really would have made the preparation much more pleasant.
Step 1: Squeeze a lot of limes and wait while it cures in the fridge
Step 2: Mix the rest of the ingredients in
Step 3: Enjoy!
croque madame w/ duck egg sunny side up
Logan Square, I’m told, is an up and coming neighborhood now that Wicker Park and Bucktown have been properly gentrified (for you San Franciscans, imagine the Mission but inhabited by less obnoxious hipsters). When I first arrived in Chicago, there wasn’t much in this area beyond Subway sandwiches and a bunch of taquerias (good but I can’t eat that every day). Twenty months later, there are quite a few businesses. Longman & Eagle opened a few months ago and it is now one of my favorite places in the neighborhood for several reasons. First, the chef is obsessed with pork and offal (me too!). They also serve a great selection of whiskey and remind me of one of my favorite places in San Francisco (The Alembic).
Since opening night, we have had dinner there at least three times. However, I have a big soft spot for brunch and was super excited when I read that Longman & Eagle would be serving brunch (btw, Chicago is an amazing brunch town). It was a gorgeous weekend day so we walked over to Longman & Eagle to kick it off with some bloody marys and eggs. I had the croque madame with a sunny side up duck egg and he had a pork belly omelet. Mine was the winner but his was also very tasty too! Can’t wait to go back and try more.
pork belly omelet w/piquillo peppers & manchego cheese
Unrelated, but a friend was in from out of town so we spent yesterday afternoon in the bleachers at Wrigley Field. Maybe next weekend, I’ll finally see the Sox.
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