Results tagged “cooking”

                

Baconfest Chicago proper won't be for another six months, but if Saturday's VIP pro cookoff is any indication organizers Seth Zurer, Michael Griggs and Andre Pluess might want to have some ambulances at the ready. Or at least some Lipitor. We won't get into another debate about how played out the bacon meme is; haters will hate, lovers will love. But there was a sense of fun among the crowd Saturday. As vocal as the pro- and anti-bacon folks can be, the overall vibe was lifted from Alfred E. Neumann: "What? Me Worry?" Few took themselves seriously at the cookoff and levity reigned. So did excess.

For the squash novice, we recommend trying the Acorn variety. They are firm, dark-green, and about the size of a cantaloupe. Here are two methods of preparing Acorn squash.

You can always count on mado to go where few other restaurants will go in their quest to adhere to serving all things head-to-tail. Lately Rob Levitt's been on a mutton kick that will continue for the foreseeable future. Mutton — older, mature lamb &3151 is noted for its richness in flavor. Because it's a tough meat, however, mutton is best cooked long and slow.

Cities like New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles are lauded for their street food scenes, and rightly so. Here in Chicago we have the Maxwell Street Market, the tamale men, sno cones, elotes, a couple vendors at farmers markets and the stray hot dog cart. Otherwise what constitutes street food here is sorely lacking. As with most things, city ordinances restrict what food carts and trucks can and cannot do, limiting their presence to not much more than roach coaches serving warmed and pre-cooked product.

Tickets to Stephanie Izard's Wandering Goat dinners are the most coveted in town, with the first two dinners selling out almost as fast as they went on sale. For the next dinner, Izard and Red Eye are giving three lucky people a chance to cook with Izard.

This time of year is probably the most bountiful for our farmers markets, with a litany of in season fruits and vegetables available for purchase before the weather truly turns. With pumpkins and other gourds ripening, apples and pears available by the bushel, and root vegetables ready for the spotlight it's also an exciting time for home cooks.

                   

Today we're going to run some more photos of Chicago Gourmet that we didn't run in our recap of the festival yesterday. It's a combination of chef shots, action shots from demos and seminars, and good ol' food pr0n. Enjoy and, if you have photos of the event on flickr, be sure to tag them with "chicagoist" so that they show up on the "Chicagoist Photos" pool..

Brush up on your "elimination challenge" skills with a class in improvisational cooking at The Chopping Block's Merchandise Mart location this Friday. From 6-8:30pm. Chef Abraham Conlon will be bringing in a secret basket of goodies and will "walk you through the creative and technical process of cooking without recipes." How exciting is that? You never know when you'll need these skills to beat this guy. Call to reserve a spot.

For the last two weeks, we've been trying to get in as much grilling as possible before the weather turns into a frozen mess. Unfortunately, there's only so many hot dogs and steaks we can eat before we start longing for something more interesting. This recipe is a great use of the grill, and works as either an appetizer for 4 or a dinner for 2. If you want more, just increase the amount of steak - the amount of marinade/sauce can work for much more meat.

One of the high points of last year's Chicago Gourmet festival was listening to Carrie Nahabedian and legendary chef Norman Van Aken discuss, among other things, their time at the former Sinclair's in Lake Forest. Van Aken was the Executive Chef and his kitchen staff included Suzy Crofton, Charlie Trotter and Nahabedian. All would go on to bigger and brighter heights.

         

Yesterday Kevin and I went to St. Anne, IL in Kankakee County (where AT&T's 3G service fears to tread, apparently) to attend the Local Beet's inaugural farm dinner at Genesis Growers. It was my third official farm dinner of the year and it was interesting to look back at how the growing season has progressed since that first City Provisions farm dinner at River Valley and the Outstanding in the Field dinner at Kinnikinnick Farm. Back in August it looked like Kinnikinnick's tomatoes would never ripen. Now we're trying to can as many tomatoes as possible and get ready for peppers, gourds and fall root vegetables.

We really enjoy baguettes here at Chicagoist's test kitchens. Unfortunately, there always seems to be 3-4 inches of dry, stale bread left over after a couple of days. After years of tossing these in the garbage with a sigh, we started experimenting with ways to use them up.

If you ever wondered what a reality show looked like where contestants were civil to each other, there was no backstabbing and maneuvering to save one's own ass and had a host that made Padma Lakshmi look hyperactive, "Top Chef Masters" was that show. That's not to say the show didn't have its moments: Ludo Lefebvre acted so above it all that Stolpman nicknamed him "LeDouche;" Tim Love showed signs of a drinking problem when faced with making a meal in a dorm room; the crestfallen look on Art Smith's face when told he was cooking a vegan and gluten-free dish for Zooey Deschanel and her party.

Julie & Julia opens in theaters today and restaurants throughout the city are offering specials in honor of the late Julia Child using recipes from her seminal cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Today, we're rounding up a few for the Buffet and we've added our favorite portrayal of the French Chef, Dan Aykroyd's performance from the early days of "Saturday Night Live."

It seems as though everything Stephanie Izard does these days is becoming one long advertisement to the impending opening of the Drunken Goat. And they're all cool endeavors. But this Le Cordon Bleu online cooking demonstration with Izard sounds really cool, even if it's also being tied in to promote the release of Julie & Julia. Izard, a Le Cordon Bleu program graduate from the Scottsdale Culinary Institute, will be making Beef Bourguignon and Chocolate Chiffon Pie, inspired by the film. The demo can be streamed via uStream and discussion of the demo will be live via Twitter at twitter.com/LCBSchools (hashtag your tweets #LCBJulia to join in on the discussion). the demonstration starts at 1 p.m. tomorrow. (h/t Colonel Tribune)

Welcome back, food lovers. This week on Top Chef Masters, we have: Chef Douglas Rodriguez, Chef Mark Peel, Chef Anita Lo or Chef John Besh. We've got James Beard winners, a Michelin star recipient, and multiple Best New Chef namings. Another impressive bunch. Oh boy, we're impressed and bored already.

       

We were fortunate enough to spend some time in MK's kitchen with Pastry Chef, Tony Galzin. In addition to letting us peek over his shoulder as he plated desserts, he answered questions on how he became a pastry chef, trends in the industry, seasonal ingredients and how to best incorporate and enjoy dessert. Also, tomorrow, we will feature video of Chef Galzin working in the kitchen.

Maybe this week a chef will stick a toilet brush in some pasta and everyone will declare it a brilliant new method of stirring. Let's see who is battling it out today: Graham Elliot Bowles from Chicago (we accidentally typed bowels at first - whoops).We dig his Chicago pin on his hat. Suzanne Tracht from Los Angeles enters the kitchen next. Oooo, it's Wylie Dufresne! How is anyone going to beat him when he has +20 hit points and +15 magic potion? Annie Lennox walks in! Oh, no, wait, that's Elizabeth Falkner. She sounds impressive with her James Beard award.

   

Our love of bacon has come to its logical endgame: we're making our own.

Home-made, fresh pasta is certainly the best kind. Unfortunately, we don’t have a pasta machine, or a ton of spare time, so we usually settle for dried. While shopping for produce, we ran into Pasta Puttana (translation: Pasta Whore) at the indoor version of the Green City Market, back in April. Owner Jessica Volpe was standing behind her entirely empty table and, when we went up to beg for scraps, she had nothing left. It was only 11 AM and the market had only been open for a couple of hours - we probably should have known better. Clearly, we aren’t the only people who love her products.

We’re not ashamed to admit it - we love broccoli. To be honest, it’s probably our favorite vegetable, barely ahead of that other childhood favorite, Brussels Sprouts. Are we crazy? Vegan? Chlorophyll Deficient? No - we simply believe that, properly prepared, these are some of the tastiest veggies around.

If your homemade eggplant lasagna recipe tastes like garbage after several attempts at perfection, consider submitting it to Fix My Recipe, a website dedicated to taking less than stellar reader recipes from around the country and fixing them via short film. Chef Billy Parisi is the man behind the fixing and has assisted readers with his take on everything from chocolate butter cream, Asian seared duck breast, steak au poivre, and guacamole. Videos are all under five minutes long and unlike many online cooking videos, are not annoying and actually fun to watch. Recipes ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, dessert, sauces, soups, and salads (whew) are also written out on the website for your convenience.

There have been some amazing mushrooms at early farmer’s markets around the city; consequently, we’ve been on the hunt for new recipes. Stuffed mushrooms are a classic appetizer, and this recipe adds a few twists. The type of prosciutto doesn’t really matter, as it’s being sautéed, so this is probably not the recipe to splurge on the $20/pound imported meat. Domestic prosciutto will do just fine - and buy extra, because you will snack on some while you cook.

This spicy soup is perfect for those of you who prefer a lighter winter soup. No potatoes, no cream, nothing too rich - just good hearty sausages and tender red peppers. Oh, and enough garlic to wake the dead.

   

All the cool kids (and some not-so-cool ones) have been tripping over each other to re-create the recipes from the Alinea cookbook that it set us thinking, "What cookbook would be the complete opposite of Alinea that could we utilize the same approach?" For us, only one came to mind.

The last time we checked in with Stephanie Izard, her life was on the cusp of some serious life change thanks to her winning Top Chef: Chicago. The combination of Izard's cooking skills, willingness to face any challenge and ebullient personality made her a viewer favorite and the first woman to win the competition.

When we were planning our election night get-together, we decided to try out some new recipes. Rather than making the same old hummus dip (maybe with a new spice, to make it seem trendier), we were looking for something with the same universal appeal, but with a radically different flavor. On the other hand, we wanted it to stay meat-free for any vegetarian guests.

Everyone around us is frantically grilling their way into summer, and, as usual, big chunks of meat seem to rule the day. In our search for alternatives to steaks and chicken breasts, we ran across an article that suggested grilling clams. After doing a little research, we found out that this wasn’t as far-fetched as it sounds and decided to try it out. After a couple of attempts, we can whole-heartedly say that clam-grilling is both tasty and entertaining – but the recipe needed some tweaking to fit our tastes. Next time you’re looking for something new, try it out!

Tonight we'll find out if Stephanie Izard wins the title of "Top Chef" in part 2 of the season finale.

Stolpman is in Europe for the next two weeks (lucky), so I'll be handling the recap duties until she gets back. Fear not, dear readers, for those of you who'll miss her as much as I do right now, I have two words for you.