More Eating on the Road

Cochinita Pibil (pulled pork) Torta from Tortas Frontera @ O’Hare

I’ve been on the road a lot lately which means not much cooking at home. The few days when I am home, I’m making a lot of stuff you’ve seen before. Last week I drove through Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Indiana by way of St. Louis and Chicago airports.

Hooray for not crappy airport food! Chicago’s Rick Bayless just opened Tortas Frontera at O’Hare (right next to gate B10 in terminal 1–if you fly United you’ll certainly walk by it). The tortas are pretty much what he serves at Xoco, his torta shop downtown. But now I don’t have to brave the lines downtown! I can just grab it on my way out of Chicago.

I had a mango lime juice, pulled pork sandwich, side salad and large water for $24 (airport prices!). Everything is sourced locally–there’s a board that prominently displays where everything comes from. Service was smooth and while I was eating, Rick Bayless himself stopped in to check in on his restaurant which opened less than a week prior. In the future, I would skip the $4 cup of salad that was grossly overdressed, but the fresh squeezed juice (mango lime!) and the tortas are totally worth it.

pulled pork lunch plate w/potato salad and coleslaw from a roadside stand in Paducah, KY

Hot Italian Giardiniera & “Italian Beef”

I didn’t really know what giardiniera was until I moved to Chicago, where this spicy, pickly, crunchy concoction is served on everything…sandwiches, pizzas, hot dogs…whatever you want but giardiniera is ubiquitous. On the West Coast, people have no idea what this amazing stuff is and it isn’t really available. Luckily, in California we have all of the fresh produce available to make it at home.

I found this recipe for hot italian giardiniera on allrecipes.com which made enough to fit perfectly in a growler from Half Acre Beer Company. My notes and modifications:

• I only used half an onion and ended up picking most of them out after the salting stage because I don’t like raw onions. I’d skip that entirely next time
• I doubled the carrots & celery because I love carrots and had a lot of celery sitting around. I’d probably double the cauliflower next time too.
• I misread the recipe and only bought 5 jalapenos but it certainly could accommodate the full amount without being too spicy. I would chop rather than slice them next time as well.

The debut of the giardiniera happened on a faux Italian Beef sandwich (the quintissential Chicago sandwich). Faux because we used deli roast beef instead of hot dripping oven roasted beef. Melted provolone cheese on top of a toasty Colombo sweet roll with a healthy dose of giardiniera on top and we had a delicious sandwich! We’ll also be using giardiniera to roast cauliflower in the future as well. Joel’s been eating it as a crunchy side to Thai curries and Chinese scallion pancakes!

Chicago Eats

Yellowtail & pancetta @ Girl & The Goat

I’m currently in Seattle–all of this was eaten over the last few weeks in Chicago. As my time in Chicago is waning, I have made a conscious effort to go to the restaurants I’ve been meaning to try. As I used to spend at least two weeks here a year for work, I have gone to many of the top restaurants (Alinea, Blackbird, etc.). However, as a student the last two years, my budget dictated that I spend a lot of time at home cooking. Now that a paycheck is on the horizon, I’ve been going to some of the more casual spots.

Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard recently opened Girl & The Goat, and we got lucky with a table for 4 at 9:30pm on a weeknight. I can’t remember all we ate but I do remember very unconventional flavor combinations that were surprising and delightful. It is a bit of a scene right now (more NYC and less your usual Chicago) because there’s a lot of media buzz (and rightfully so). I’m so glad I made it here before the move.

Pork belly torta @ Xoco

I finally made it to Xoco, the newest of Rick Bayless’ Chicago restaurant empire. I’ve been to both Frontera Grill and Topolobampo but hadn’t made the trek downtown to his casual tortaria yet. The day I went, his daughter, Lanie was the hostess. I was tempted to tell her much less annoying she is than Claudine Pepin but refrained. I love tortas and his interpretations were delicious! If I worked in the area and had the time to wait in line, I would eat there at least once a week (though the sandwiches can get pretty messy!).

Piece pizza

Easily my favorite pizza place in Chicago. No, its not deep dish and yes, Chicago is famous for deep dish. Personally, I am not a fan of deep dish. I find it soggy and heavy. On the other hand, I love the New Haven style pizza they have at Piece. They also have a huge array of microbrews on tap. We used to wait in line for Piece but ever since we discovered they delivered, our lives have been that much better! I’m a big fan of the white pizza (garlic olive oil instead of tomato sauce).

Asparagus cheese puffs we made @Bespoke

When Joel’s mom was in town, we went to a cooking party at Bespoke. Basically, there are several tables of people and each group is responsible for a full course. The event is designed to make cooking more accessible and they do a very good job on that front. Each group has a chef that guides them through all the steps. I found the recipes too easy (and it was a bit annoying that our chef kept mispronouncing “manchego”) but not everyone is at the same skill level, I guess. In any case, it is a nice social activity where food and learning is involved.

Graduation Cookout

I graduated! With friends and family in town from all corners of the country, we hosted a cookout the night before graduation. I didn’t take any pictures of the food since I was so busy prepping, watching soccer and hanging out with friends and family. Instead, I’ll just give you a list of food we served with links and comments:

• Rosanne Cash’s Potato Salad: I doubled the recipe and we had more than enough for our 20+ guests. I had never made potato salad before (love potato salad but its not really a staple for the West Coast cookout) but it seems like everyone in the Midwest has an opinion about what should or shouldn’t go into a potato salad. I used red potatoes, omitted the onions, added some creole seasoning and used both dill and sweet butter pickles (because that’s what was in the fridge). Next time, I would add some bacon. Otherwise, this recipe is pretty awesome as is…not too mayonnaisey, which is always my fear.
• Grilled Corn
• Grilled Korean meats from H-Mart
• Pesto Pasta Salad: Used whole wheat pasta and added tomatoes and mushrooms.
• Slow Cooker Pulled Pork: This is such an easy way to feed a lot of people with minimal effort! Only two ingredients to throw into a slow cooker and all you have to do later is shred the pork and throw in some BBQ sauce. I had intended on making BBQ sauce from scratch but I discovered a few bottles in the fridge and figured it would be wasteful not to use it. I used 4 pounds of pork shoulder but definitely could have made more (there were no leftovers).
• Cole Slaw: I’m not usually a big fan of cole slaw but it goes so well with pulled pork (and we needed some veggies).
• Fresh Pineapple: Since my Dad was in town, I bought three pineapples for him to carve up. Normally, it is too much work for me (well, I’ve never attempted it)…but I do love fresh pineapple…and now I know how to choose good ones, too!
• Freezer Cookies: Between the crawfish boil and the graduation cookout, all of the cookie dough hoarding paid off. We had delicious fresh-baked cookies (ginger snap, oatmeal peanut butter, snickerdoodle, oatmeal chocolate chip) without any of the effort required!

And of course, I couldn’t have done it without the help of my best girlfriends who all flew in for my graduation. THANK YOU!!

Roasted Artichokes

I came across a post about roast artichokes on Pinch My Salt and thought it might be a good alternative to the steamed artichokes I grew up eating in Northern California. Not only was it a new preparation for whole artichokes but it would definitely reduce my mayonnaise intake. I prepared it almost exactly as Pinch My Salt suggested except I sliced the garlic to make it easier to tuck between the leaves. I also didn’t have heavy duty aluminum foil and the suggested doubling up didn’t seem to help. The stems ended up burning through the bottom of the tin foil which resulted in a browner and crispier artichoke than anticipated. However, after I peeled the charred part away, it was velvety and delicious!

I just need to pick up some heavy duty aluminum foil and this will be going into our regular vegetable rotation!

And stay tuned for some upcoming cooking extravaganzas…we’ll be hosting both a crawfish boil and a cookout within the next few weeks!