Brined, Smoked, Roasted, Crisped Duck With A Sauce Ala 90's!

Smoking gun, used for smoking food.  Don't get any bright ideas.

Hickory smoke is such a dandy smelling smoke to fill your kitchen, clothes, hair and Gunthorp Farms duck.  I used my AWESOME polyscience smoking gun for the first time last night.  I filled the chamber twice with hickory chips and allowed the duck to smoke for about ten minutes each time, four times total.

So backing up I brined this duck over night in a pickling spice mixture.  I make my pickling mixture with cinnamon, clove, allspice, juniper berries, mace, ginger, bay leaf, dill seed, mustard seed, fennel seed, coriander seed, black peppercorns, and red chili flakes.  I mixed a 1/2 cup of this mixture with a 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 cup of kosher salt, heated it in one gallon of water.  Once it was infused and come back to room temperature I placed it in a container, submerged the duck, added the rind of two oranges and covered, refrigerated for 24 hours.  

After 24 hours I rinsed the duck and patted it dry.  I stuffed it with a mire poix: carrot, celery, onion, with the oranges I peeled.  Then I placed it in a deep roasting pan with a lid so that I could smoke it.  After it was smoked I sprinkled kosher salt and pepper all over the skin and placed it in the oven at 200.  Had I not been going to a pierogi tasting I would have done perhaps more of a Chinese Crispy Duck method.  But I need to buy time... after two hours when I got home I turned the oven up to 250 to finish it off.  After about twenty minutes the duck reached an internal temp of 160.  I took it out, allowed it to rest for about twenty minutes and then I quartered it, brought canola oil up to a nice hot temp in a big skillet and seared the heck out of the skin until it was nice and golden brown.

And backing up a touch more, while I was finishing up the duck and allowing it to rest I made this sauce which I think is a real oldie.  I didn't add duck stock because my partner can't have duck so I am going to write it without the stock, which most people don't have at home anyways.  It's really good this way but if you do have duck stock, add a cup and just reduce it longer.

1/4 cup sugar

2 T Gran Mariner

1 cup orange juice

2 T sherry vinegar

2 T butter

1/2 t kosher salt

3 sprigs of thyme

In a small sauce pan, caramelize the sugar.  While caramelizing sugar, burn alcohol off Gran Mariner in a skillet and reduce.  This will happen quickly then set aside.  Once you've achieved that nice brown hue from the sugar, remove from heat and whisk in sherry vinegar, this will bubble and sizzle a lot so be cautious.  Return to heat to allow sugar to incorporate back in, then add Gran Mariner, orange juice, salt and thyme (add duck stock here if you have it).  Allow this to reduce for twenty minutes or more until the sauce coats the back of a spoon.  You can also mix 1 teaspoon of cornstarch and 1 teaspoon of water together then add to sauce as it's reducing to thicken if you need to rush it.  Once you turn off the heat whisk in the 2 tablespoons of cold butter.   That's it.  Last night I made this for my partner's aunt and cousin who are in town.  I'm trying to score points, obviously since they won't get to see one of my Underground Dinners.  This morning I made them potato pancakes with bacon, poached eggs, and hollandaise.  They think they are in heaven, kind of.

Before she goes in.

Every Culture Has Their Little Dumplings

Winter pierogi, soooo good.

The word dumpling that we use comes from the UK somewhere about early 17th century.  Dumplings make me think of a couple different things.  They make me think of sweathearts.  They make me think of the Dirty South, chicken and gravy.  They make me think of soup Chesha (aunt in Polish) taught my mother to make.  They make me think of pierogi!  

At the Farmers' Markets it seems that there is about a good 20% percent of people who do that little dog head turn when they read the word pierogi scribbled on my chalkboard.  I just say "it's a noodle stuffed with goodies, you boil, saute in fat of your choice and serve."  The goodies I use are for the most part entirely seasonal for the few exceptions, which are usually beer braised lamb (lately I been using Dynamo from Metropolitian Brewing for the braise and most of the time, especially in the summer months the lamb I use is Mint Creek Farms), white bean and parmesan, Yukon gold potato and Wisconsin cheddar, and truffle oil and mushroom.  In the later months of summer I make elotes pierogi with corn from Twin Gardens Farms and other locals and in the fall I use squash from Genesis Farms or Green Acre Farms to make a squash and pie spice.  I try to have a lot of fun with these dumplings because it is tedious work and takes many many hours to put them together when they are all handcrafted.  

Some of my favorite dumplings are the Chinese potstickers.  I also love gnocchi, Italian dumplings which are so easy to make and perfect around these winter months with all the left over mashed potatoes you might have in the fridge.  And shout outs to Indian samosas, Japanese Gyozas, German damphfnudel, and Mexican tamales!

Chicken, Cheddar, Curry Risotto!

So quick and easy.
1 clove of garlic sliced thin
1/2 cup risotto
1 chicken breast cut into 1 inch cubes
1 T curry powder
1/2 cup of shredded cheddar
salt and pepper to taste
1 t canola oil

yummies!

Heat canola oil, add garlic, saute one minute, add risotto and coat in oil.  After about a minute add enough water to cover risotto one inch.  Let simmer while continuously stirring.  Add chicken and more water to cover again.  Once chicken is cooked, test risotto for tenderness, add a touch more water, continuously stirring.  When risotto begins to soften add curry, salt, pepper.  When risotto hits al dente, add in cheese while stirring.  You may have to add more water as you go along.  The risotto takes about 25 minutes to cook.  I topped mine with ham and cilantro and served with sliced tomatoes.

Cream Of Mushroom and Truffle Soup

In addition to the many meat delights I served for the Gimme Shelter Event I hosted over the weekend, I had a vegetarian and a vegan soup option.  While both were good the favorite was the vegetarian cream of mushroom and truffle soup.  I have been asked by many to share the recipe so here it is:
"1 pill makes you larger and 1 pill makes you small," read this  blog because that mushroom stock is the base for this soup.  The clarified mushroom stock is the secret.  However you can use boxed mushroom stock from Whole Foods-but it's not as good.  You will need three to four quarts
8 oz. button mushrooms
4 oz. mixed "gourmet" mushrooms, oyster, crimini, shittake
4 oz. my lover-Maitake
2 cups cream
1 T black truffle oil
2 bay leaf
1 T grapeseed oil
1-1 1/2 T red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
Chop and saute mushrooms with grapeseed oil in stock pot, saute until sweated and soft, add a little salt and the red wine vinegar to bring out the mushroom liquid and add acidity.  Add stock, bay leaf and let simmer for about an hour.  Remove bay leaf and transfer to a blender, a couple batches at a time.  Once very nicely pureed add back to cleaned stock pot.  Add the two cups of cream, the black truffle oil and salt and pepper to taste.  If you feel the soup is too thin for you, you can toast some cubes of rye bread and add them to the blending process, mmmkay, that will make this soup taste delicious with a nice stout.  Or before you transfer it back to the stock pot make a roux of 1 T flour to 1 T of butter.  I did neither or those things but also as I have said, I eyeball my recipes then I transfer them to my notebook and then blog after the fact so these are approximations, but very good approximations I'll say.  And someday I truly believe I will have the time to recipe test! 
Cheers.

Kilgus! The Best Milk.

Soft, silky, and wah wah-gelatinous is typically a panna cotta, at least to me.  Panna cotta the eggless Italian custard has never been a favorite of mine so if I'm dedicating a blog to it that's huge.  The best panna cotta I've had is served at Anteprima.  Again kudos to the chef, same chef as Acre.  Anteprima was mentioned in the Michelin Bib Gourmand List as one of the great places for a meal under $40. 
I was just there a couple nights ago and I ran into the same thing as I ran into at Acre, a little over salted here and there but still palatable.  Dessert was immaculate.  I could not figure out how the panna cotta was so creamy.  First I thought all cream, no milk.  Then I thought reduced cream.  Then I thought maybe mascarpone added.  I asked.  I was told it is a local milk purveyor.  I asked who.  She wasn't sure.  When our waitress left the table I said to my dining partner, I bet it's Kilgus.  She came back and said, "Kilgus, they have a nice non-homogenized milk."  I have to figure out the chef's recipe so for me it's back to the drawing board.  I've recently had a celery panna cotta on my menu and a walnut panna cotta.  The walnut panna cotta was creamier than the celery due to the walnuts but both were a little more gelatinous than I'd like.  I use carrageenan to set my panna cotta and not as much sugar as is tradition but I'll be experimenting in traditions in a couple weeks and let you know.  Here is the link to Kilgus' website http://www.kilgusfarmstead.com/ find them, taste them, love them.

Al Pastor High and Low.

From 1800 south to 4700 north this week I've been dedicated to scouting the great wide open of this city for Al Pastor.  From pork belly to pork butt everyone's got their cut of meat and from spicy to mild everyone's got their heat (yes I rhymed on purpose, my apologies).  Taqueria El Milagro-Pilsen, Wholefoods Taqueria-Kingsbury Store and El Ranchito-next to Carol's Pub on Clark, don't act like you don't know where Carol's Pub is!  I love them all.  I would have to say that El Ranchito is my favorite and maybe it's my north side bias but it had so much flavor.  I had Al Pastor Sope.  The masa dough sope had just the right amount of crunch surrounding the soft, corny inside.  Everywhere I go, when I like something I always ask what's in it.  I have a knack of being able to figure out what is usually inside of something just by tasting it, a skill I built while working at some great restaurants and having eclectic ingredients and wine tastings-wine tastings really are a palate tuner, especially if you have an excellent wine director as a coach.  But with this knack I still like to ask cooking method and ingredients to test myself.  I thought it was cute when the dude's at wholefoods said, "some spices, lime, things like that.  Why are you allergic to something?"  I just smiled and said, "No, but thanks."  When I paid, the tag receipt had the list of ingredients.  I had gotten more information from the young waitresses that I could barely talk to with my broken Spanish.  On the summer menu of One Sister Underground, I had al pastor cured pork belly, cooked sous vide with pineapple and onion.  It was good but not perfect but it was one of my first al pastor attempts.  Most people did comment that it was their favorite.  This time I think I've perfected it.  It's for the pork sandwich for my event this weekend.
Here is the marinade/brine:
Note this is for 15 pounds of pork, so cut in half or third is good for a family dinner even if you are just brining two to three pounds.  I cut mine into 2 inch cubes.
1 qt. 14 oz. can pineapple juice-if you have time, fresh juiced.
1600g Pork stock-I used shoulder and shank bones and added coriander seeds and Mexican oregano to this stock, knowing it was for this.  You can also use chicken stock or veg stock-infuse with spices if you like.
2 cups h2o
2 oranges, squeezed-juice only
2 limes, squeezed-juice only
2 can chipotle peppers 630g
4 crushed dried pasilla chilis
2 dried pasilla chilis ground in spice grinder and sifted
1 onion, chopped
3 clove garlic
1 cup salt
1 cup sugar
1 fresh jalapeno
1 cup chopped cilantro
2 T Cumin
3 bay leaves
40 peppercorns
Let marinate for 24 hours, cook in oven at 250 for three hours in brining liquid until tender but not falling apart, let cool and chop to create al pastor type texture.  Or cook 4 hours until tender and falling apart, once cool, pull for pulled pork.  Or cook in sous vide with a touch of the liquid, 180 for 3-4 hours, cool and chop.  Once chopped you can sear it in a pan with a touch of pineapple.  Reserve the cooking liquids, strain, cool, skim off fat, taste for seasoning, if salty-dilute with water, oj and pineapple juice, reheat and let reduce to saucy consistency.  Use this liquid to keep al pastor moist.

Out Of The Woods.

There is nothing better than driving down a country road, Led Zeppelin on the radio, the sky like an old tie-dye I remember my sister wearing, bits of leaves bedazzled on my jacket and a basket full of persimmons.  The persimmon tree was just on the edge of the road, cornfield to the left, scant forest to the right and an old mailbox next to a gravel driveway running right down the middle.  I'm sure it was private property but it didn't seem that anyone had touched the tree, so I filled my basket and left plenty for the next like me.  I found no black trumpets, I might be on the wrong track and time for them.  I'll have to do more research.  And turns out elderberries have long passed, at least my father said when I laid their vacancy on him.  Then there is always my go-to, dandelions but it's getting late for them too, however I did get enough to saute for dinner.  I brought them home, cleaned them and sauted them in bacon fat.  As a child, not having a taste for coffee I knew one thing Hills Bros. coffee cans were good for-bacon fat.  Today I save bacon fat in deli containers and usually have some in my refrigerator.  My partner loves blt's so everytime she makes one I strain the fat and reserve it.  Here's the recipe I put together.  Very easy.

1 pound dandelion greens, cleaned

2 cloves garlic, roasted

1 T bacon fat

Kosher salt and cracked pepper to taste

Add bacon fat to pan, allow to warm, add roasted garlic and smash into the fat, add dandelion green and saute until tender.  Serve.  Delish.  You can also add a touch of balsamic to the fat to make for a wilted green salad type of dish.  You can leave out the bacon fat and use canola oil, olive oil or butter.

I'll let you know about my curried persimmon marmalade another day.  Cheers.

Into The Woods.

I'm feeling disconnect and when I feel disconnect my only answer is to head to the woods.  It usually means I haven't put something in my belly for awhile that hasn't been harvested with my hands.  So it's been so cold you might wonder what I could find.  Well, I'm not sure if I'll find them but I'm looking for black trumpets, elderberries (of which it might be too late for both), dandelion greens-I'll get plenty and last but not least PERSIMMON.  Persimmon ripens after the first few days of frost and is absolutely abundant in our lovely Midwest but rather than looking down I'll be looking up for them, perfect orange globes like Christmas ornaments from the bare trees.  One Sister's Winter Menu is calling for a persimmon cake crumble, persimmon cake puree and curried persimmon marmalade.  So much persimmon but its so so so good.  Hopefully this will put me back in connect.  Must have been all that turkey.

Chanterelles!

This apricoty deliciously nutty magical and peppery mushroom is probably the reason why I fell in love with the taste of mushrooms.  It is so distinct and beautiful.  Commonly found in coniferous forests, forming sybiotic relationships you'll find them tucked away or nestled close to trees.  Birch and beech.  I just recently stopped by The Fish Guy to discuss a new relationship-he'll be selling my pierogi.  Even though he's The Fish Guy he brings in lots of other cool things like mushrooms.  Knowing my mushroom love, as I was leaving he gave me a bag of chanterelles.  I suppose I hadn't had a chanterelle in a while but as soon as I got home I heated them in a skillet with a couple drops of grapeseed oil, salt and pepper.  Oh my GOSH!  It immediately reeled me back to being about six and coming home from a mushroom hunt on my grandparents farm and I distinctly remember standing on a foot stool at the stove sauting these babies.  Chanterelles, if not found in late summer in a pine forest near you, can be found anywhere from Wholefoods to believe it or not, Costco.  My mother just told me she saw them there at a ridiculously low price.  I don't shop at Costco.  Nothing against them but whenever I'm in a warehouse type place I get lost.  But if you have an opportunity to pick some up, please do.

C-Is For Cookie!

Cookies are simple!  They can be made way ahead of time, cut, frozen and then saved until you are ready to bake.  Baking really began to make sense for me when I read Michael Ruhlman's "Ratios."  I recommend that book to anyone who likes cooking whether you are a beginner or have even gone to cooking school.  He describes the cookie recipe as 1-2-3, 2 oz. sugar: 4 oz. butter: 6 oz. flour.  I use this ratio and then depending on what type of cookie I'm making, change it up a little.  Here is the recipe for my maitake mushroom cookies.
115 g maitake, 4 oz package- dehydrate and pulverize in spice grinder, sift. (leaves you with less weight)
2 oz sugar
4 oz butter
1 cup of all purpose flour
1 eggs
So as you can see I've added and taken away some things.  I add the egg at the end because I like how it brings it together. 
Ok, so let the butter come to room temp.  Place it in kitchen aid with paddle attachment and mix with sugar, add the maitake mushroom powder and slowly beat in the flour.  As I said I add the egg at the end.  Then I flour my hands.  Pull out the cookie dough and then roll  it into a ball.  I place it in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes and then roll it out on a floured surface.  Roll it to about 1/8-1/4 inch thick and cut with tiny circle cutter or whatever cutter you like depending on your party or occasion and then place on sheet tray lined with parchment and freeze.  After about 20 minutes in the freezer these should pop right off and you can save them in a ziploc for later use.  Or you can bake them fresh at 350 for about ten minutes, until the bottoms are nice and golden. 
I use these cookies as a sandwich for a pecan ice cream.  I use my cookies mostly to make ice cream sandwiches for Underground Dinners.  In the past I have made cornbread shortbread cookies that sandwiched an oyster ice cream.  And black pepper shortbread cookies that sandwiched a scrambled egg ice cream with house cured pork belly and maple syrup.  These may sound strange but they have been some guest's favorite dishes.  Experiment with your cookies.  Cookie is good enough for me, remember this one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye8mB6VsUHw

Cozy Classic-Reversed!

Grilled cheese soup and tomato chips.  Easy and so tasty.
10 yr aged Wisconsin cheddar-about 4 oz. shredded
8 yr aged Wisconsin white cheddar-about 4 oz. shredded
1 oz butter, for roux
2 oz butter for bread
1 oz flour
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups milk
4 slices of whole wheat bread
salt and pepper to taste
Melt butter and add flour to sauce pan, cook flour till lightly brown and all butter is incorporated into a nice paste.  Add the cream.  Let incorporate and thicken.  Add the cheddar and let melt.  In the meantime, cut the crusts off the bread and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.  Saute the bread in butter just as you would a grilled cheese. 
Add the milk to the soup, add the bread.  Allow the bread to get soft.  If soup seems too thick add a little water or more milk.   Transfer to blender and blend on low and finish on medium to medium fast.  Pass through a fine mesh strainer and that's it.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
Tomato Chips:
Roma tomatoes, sliced on mandolin or very thin.  I like to slice them to the point of transparency.  Sprinkle with salt and dehydrate at 130 for 2-3 hours in dehydrator or in oven (on nonstick sprayed parchment or silpat) until crisp.  Reserve in airtight container until ready to eat.  These will last for a couple weeks if kept in cool dry pantry or cabinet. 
Note: you can use any cheddar you like, you can also substitute some of the liquid for beer...Chimay would be delicious.

Living A Dream

Cleetus Friedman of City Provisions Delicatessen (and enterprise) is certainly living his dream and one of mine.  I have a lot of dreams.  One Sister having four restaurant walls is certainly the top priority but if I was to have a delicatessen it would be just like his.  It's a beautiful little number.  He has all the top local players and just about everything about it is sustainable.  I love that you can buy beautiful milky white rendered bacon fat in Ball mason jars.  House cured and seasoned fatback, head cheese mixed with butternut squash and pine nuts, Gunthrop Farms duck prosciutto, and Deitzler Farms prime cuts (oo oo oo and my pierogi).
Cleetus found me at the Andersonville Farmers' Market and asked to put my pierogi on the shelf.  Of course, I had to say yes and they just recently made their appearance.  What a generous and cool guy to be supplying. 
In addition to all the nice homemade specialties and lunch meats (the roast beef in the deli case is juicy as hell and is amazing, you don't even need sauce for a sani with that) there are salads and mac and cheese squares.  I bought two of the squares today, heated them in the oven and finished them with a dash of truffle oil, mm mmm good.  You can go here for lunch or dinner, just get coffee or a pastry or do some specialty shopping for a house warming or holiday party.  Create your own charcuterie, cheese or snack plates, pick out artisanal wines, beers, or liquors and really impress your guests.  Going to City Provisions is more that just a visit to the local grocer, it's an outing-a feast for the eyes and tummy and something that will lessen the weight of your carbon footprint.

Short Rib

There are so many ways to do short ribs.  I think the best are braised.  This is a recipe I often use.  It is time consuming but worth the effort.  But after a few easy steps this cooking process allows you time to work on other things like chores, the kids, homework, work work, or side dishes.  I often make these ribs for my family on New Years Day and use half of the remaining cooking liquid to cook nice fatty noodles, like Polish butter noodles or noodles that I make using my pierogi dough, cut into bite-sized pieces.  Oh my, it's so good, here it goes:
6 bottles of Bell's Beer or another brown ale or even Belgium Beer, careful for beers with high hop content as they make a more bitter braise.
3 cups veal stock or beef stock
2 carrots, chopped in mirepoix or large dice
1 onion, same
1 fennel bulb, chopped
2 garlic cloves in skin
4 sprigs of thyme
1 bay leaf
flour to dust ribs
1 1/2 t Kosher salt
Cracked Pepper
3 T canola oil
Place the beer in a large enough sauce pan and bring it to a boil, once boiling, reduce heat and add aromatic veggies: carrot, fennel, onion, garlic.  Turn off heat and let it cool to room temp.  Line short ribs in a shallow pan, pour beer and veggies over the short ribs, place in refrigerator for one day. 
The next day remove the short ribs to a plate or tray and place flour on another plate (for dusting).  Pour the beer marinade through a strainer into a sauce pan, reserve the veggies on the side.  Bring the beer marinade to a boil.  This is going to be like the clarifying with egg white process.  The proteins from the meat which transfer into the marinade will form a raft, let this simmer for about 20 minutes to 40 minutes and then strain through coffee filter.  Reserve the liquid on the side.  In a large skillet add about 1 T canola oil being careful to not overheat.  Cook the veggies till they are nice and caramelized and transfer them to your roasting pan.  Use a large enough pan that ribs will fit in a single layer and you can cover them with the liquid without it being too full.  Next flour the meat and add a couple more tablespoons of oil to the skillet and brown each piece of meat for about 2 or 3 minutes on each side.  Place in the roasting pan when finished in even layer over the veggies.  Next add the clarified beer marinade along with the veal stock, enough to cover all the ribs, add the thyme and bay.  Here you can add 1 1/2 t kosher salt and pepper, and some secret ingredients like a tablespoon of anchovy paste and a tablespoon of tomato paste for Umami.  Cover pan with parchment paper lid-a piece of parchment cut out to fit perfectly inside the pan with a small hole in the center for steam to escape or with a regular lid or aluminum foil.  Place in a 275 degree oven for 5-6 hours for boneless and 3-4 hours for bone-in.  After cooking time is up-you'll know when they are done because they will be seeming to fall from the bone or be very tender to the touch.  I always cook one extra piece when I do anything I'm uncertain of so that I can poke, prod and test it.  So once they cooled, gently remove them from the liquid and reserve warm.  Strain the cooking liquid and discard the veggies.  Allow to cool and skim the fat from the top of the cooking liquid.  Strain cooking liquid again through cheese cloth or something very fine to catch any particles.  Add liquid to a pan and reduce till nice and saucy.  It will thicken on it's own.  Also, if you are going to do something like add a hearty vegetable like potato- you can reserve half of the liquid to cook the potato in or use half of the liquid like I do, add a more little stock or water and use it to cook noodles in, even store bought egg noodles work for this.  Note: that if you aren't serving immediately you can hold the sauce and meat in airtight containers for several days.  Also you can make it gluten-free by elminating the flour dusting.
You can change this recipe up by eliminating the beer and adding red wine, you can do it alcohol-free and use only stock, or you can change the dynamic entirely and use an Asian inspired marinade-sake, mirin, soy, sesame oil, lemongrass, carrots, green onions, shallots, chili flakes, fish sauce (instead of anchovy), kombu (instead of tomatoes)... I'd serve it over sticky rice with a slaw of bok choy, carrot and charred scallion  dressed in rice wine vinegar and sugar...and siracha sauce.  I'm so hungry.

San Soo Gab San

Ever wonder where to find late night eats that's not a taqueria?  The tiny strip mall just North of Foster on Western set behind a small parking lot is easy to miss but you'll know your close when you smell the smoky essence of Korean short ribs and kimchee spice.  Yum.  The exact address is 5247 N. Western.  It may be a hike for some but is well worth it at two or four in the morning when the bars are closed.  You won't be in and out so don't attempt this sloppy drunk because you'll be playing with fire, literally.  A wall of grill smoke will likely hit you as you walk in followed by the chatter of Korean dialects mixed with English and the clanking of tiny plates frisbeed onto the tables by the adorable Korean waitstaff who is not so friendly.  But these tiny plates are some of the most exciting elements of the meal: pickled cucumbers, carrots, diakon radish, fermented-spicy cabbage aka kimchi/kimchee, marinated fish cakes, bean sprouts, spinach and seaweeds, even potato salad, the list goes on...  In order to cook from the grill at your table you have to order two items from the barbecue.  I love the marinated Korean beef short rib, kalbi kui, and the baby octopus.  This octopus is not first cooked in sous vide so expect it to be a little rubbery but the flavor is delish.  The pajun appetizer full of seafood and green onions is my favorite!  A group of four can easily snack on one appetizer and two items from the Barbecue menu and leave stuffed to the brim.  This place is open till the wee hours of the morning so if you are looking for post-bar or even just something to fill your tummy after a late shift this is the place.  I have made a ritual of taking my partner and my niece on Saturdays after my dinners.  It's my treat to them and even my picky partner likes it.  I think you'll be happy too.  I LOVE KOREAN FOOD!

1 Pill Makes You Larger and 1 Pill Makes You Small

Mushroom Soup...
I use edible mushrooms and/but I do listen to Jefferson Airplane while making this soup.  On August 17th, 1969 Jefferson Airplane played White Rabbit at Woodstock, exactly ten years before I was born.  I'd say I must have some kind of soul connection to the band.  They also played Plastic Fantastic Lover and Volunteers, two of my favorites.  As I've mentioned before I play this song during the Drink Me/Eat Me course at One Sister Underground.
The recipe:
1130 g of mushrooms.  This is about 3 and a half pounds of mushrooms (I think).  Here's what I buy: 2 large packages of white button mushrooms.  2-4 oz. packages of mixed mushrooms-usually oyster, crimini, shiitake, and 2-4 oz. packages of maitake mushrooms.
3 carrots, chopped in stock fashion
1 fennel bulb, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 can of tomato paste, 8 oz can.
3 garlic cloves
15 peppercorns
1T Kosher salt
2 bay leaves
5 sprigs of thyme
Place the white buttons and mixed mushrooms, all coarsely chopped, into a stock pot and sweat with carrot, fennel, onion and garlic in a touch of vegetable or canola oil.  Reserve maitakes on side.  Add cold water, about a gallon and a half to two gallons, bring to boil.  Add salt, peppercorns, tomato paste, bay and thyme.  Turn down to a heavy simmer and allow to cook for 4 hours.  After about two hours, I add the 8 oz or 230g of maitake to a sheet tray, bake for about 5 minutes at 350 then add to a small stock pot and cover with about 2 quarts of water, add about a 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt and let come to a boil then turn down and allow to simmer for 90 minutes.  Taste both stocks.  Make sure they have a nice mushroom flavor, adjust seasoning if needed or cook a little longer and then strain.  I discard my batch with the veggies but the maitake I save and saute in butter.  They taste not "so amazing" after this long water soak but I still love them.  Ok, so.  After both batches are strained I mix them together and then strain through cheese cloth back into a clean stock pot and reduce for one hour.  After the hour is up, I check for seasoning.  I usually don't have to add much, maybe a pinch of salt.  Once it is nice and complex, full of mushroomy deliciousness I turn it off and let it cool.  I haven't measured it at this point but I think I have about ten cups to twelve cups (closer to twelve) so once it is cool I add ten to twelve egg whites to the batch and turn back on the heat.  Using a flat bottomed spatula I gently pull the egg whites to the surface as they cook and run the spatula along the sides to make sure there is no sticking because they will scorch.  Once it reaches a heavy simmer and the soup is running consistently but gently through the egg raft I leave it alone for another hour.  After the hour is up I turn off the soup and let the egg settle.  The final straining process is run through a cheese cloth into deli containers or an airtight container where I will hold it until service. Usually, I am left with about 30 ounces give or take a few of this lovely, clarified, mushroom soup.  You can freeze it, refrigerate it, use it as a base for other soups and sauces, cook down sliced shiitake in butter with Madeira, shallot, thyme, add a little of this stock, reduce, mount with butter to thicken, serve over steak or grilled tofu.  You can do anything with it, drink it from teacups.  Cheers.

Dragon Lady Lounge

Walking into the dimly lit bar with not much of a decor, some bottles of alcohol on the shelves, nothing better than you'd find at Jewel, a poor beer selection and bottles of wine I might have bought in high school because of the pocket change price point, and of course PBR in a can, it's Logan Square after all, this seemed to be no more than your typical Chicago neighborhood dive.  I sat in fear as a douche bag with a leather Harley Davidson skull cap muscled over to the jukebox.  I knew we were in for some screeching rock music of no taste and inaudible acoustics.  My niece and I smiled and giggled when it happened, thinking the same thing.  But here's the catch, we came here because I was told by a friend who has mostly vegan and raw eating practices that this dive has an amazing Korean Vegan Buffet on Thursday nights.  I did a little research and went.  We walked past the outside twice wondering if that was it for certain and a small erase board assured us it was. 
Some of my favorites meats are not meats at all.  Some might think it's taboo that being I chef I should articulate such blasphemies.  How despicable, an abomination to the culinary world!  Well, I'm absolutely in love with Uptons and Soul Veg.  I eat at least one to two of their prepared wraps a week as a quick lunch when I'm shopping at wholefoods.  They now carry Uptons at Provenance Food and Wine and at Green Grocer too.  That being said, I was excited to eat Vegan Korean.  I love Korean food as I've mentioned before.  So I'll give you a little run down.
Aside from the douche, there was an eclectic bunch, me looking like a lumberjack/farmer, my friend Jeff smart and funny, well-dressed, my niece who as Mick Jagger would say, you make a grown man cry, and some business types, regulars, and hipsters.  Pretty scant overall.  The buffet was to begin at seven but it'd didn't start till about seven thirty when the bartender announced, "she's ready for you."  We went up to the kitchen window and paid the adorable little Korean woman dressed like a cafeteria worker, 13.50.  Once everyone was paid she stood at the front of the line and ladled rice on plates and handed them to us one by one.  The buffet was set up on a folding table and was full of so many of my favorite treats: homemade kimchi, bebimbop accoutrement, royal fern (my favorite), spicy pickled cucumber, kimbop (Korean vegan sushi), pajun, and Korean miso soup which seems to have the traditional base and tofu with the addition of zucchini and cabbage.  I was in heaven.  I had three servings and she made sure to come up to us when she saw our plates low and told us to get more.  My niece was tickled.  She had Korean for the first time when I took her late night to San Soo Gab San (another blog).  And she was so excited to have it buffet style.  Afterwards I asked her what she thought and she said it was like having all of her favorite dishes in one sitting.  Jeff was very happy too.  He has a mostly vegetarian eating practice but will eat meat occasionally if I cook it for him and when we go to places like Alinea and Schwa.  He was impressed and full.
When she came up to our table to urge us back to the buffet she also mentioned that we should spread the word.  She has had ebbs and flows of business and it is really dependent upon press and that I understand.  She told us to yelp if we could but I don't have one of those accounts but I knew I was going to write about The Dragon Lady Lounge before I even stepped through the doors.  There is no lack of quality.  It is home cooked Korean, beautiful, fragrant, solid and soul nourishing.  Thursdays 7-10pm, $13.50, 3188 N. Elston.  She's the kind of lady you want to be your friend.

Eat Your Seaweed!

Ever wonder why seaweed is so good?  Sounds like a strange thing to be so scrumptious.  Or why Parmesan cheese tastes so good on tomato sauce and why anchovy is put on pizzas and in sauces and why fish sauce is so common in Vietnamese and other Asian preparations?  These foods contain the neurotransmitter, glutamate.  Glutamate plays a role in cognitive functions because it does so much work in all those wonderful synapses and happenings that go on in our brain and nervous system (reason why you should not use PCP or take animal tranquilizers-they block glumatic acid from doing it's work and that's why hallucinations occur.  Due to the blockage our brains are not getting the right acids to get our synapses to play together in harmony).  Glutamic Acid is considered to be a flavor.  First researched and studied in German labs and then named by a Japanese researcher as a flavor called, "umami."  Kombu broth, a key player and a seaweed I use on my current menu at One Sister Underground and used in Japanese cooking for broths and stocks like Dashi, was found that when evaporated little brown crystals are left behind resulting in glutamic acid.  Umami is known as our fifth flavor following sour, bitter, salty, sweet.  When glutamate or glutamic acid is mass produced it is known as monosodium glutamate, MSG.  Not good!  Just like anything that is altered (for the most part), hydrogenated butter for example-margarine, it changes the role it plays in our systems and doesn't perform the work as it was naturally intended.  The point is that we can get this lovely taste and flavor enhancer very naturally.
This is why Caesar dressing is so good.  Why Italian grandmothers and chefs trained in Italy use Parmesan rinds in their broths and sauces.  Why we put soy sauce on food and mushrooms on meat  Supposedly methods like these date back to early empires, using dried fishes to make sauces and broths.  Try to cook a meal using these natural glutamates... add anchovy paste and tomato to your braising liquid for short ribs, add mushrooms to the finished product and top with Parmesan cheese.  You'll love it.

Picky Pick Pick!

She'll eat the tomatoes if they are ripe and fresh, but not the seeds, in a sauce but if it's pureed not chunky and it has to be savory not sweet.  She loves pickles, sour things and lemon on everything but she hates saurekraut.  She won't touch an egg or mushrooms (although she will forage for them).  She doesn't like chocolate but she loves nutella in the morning.  She doesn't like things that are "gushy," "slimy," or "jellied."  She won't touch a stew and will eat certain fish only if it's fried but likes sushi but only if it's maki rolls, not sashimi and it has to be dipped in eel sauce and then dipped in soy sauce (I really don't think she tastes the fish at all that way).  She doesn't like to eat pork because she had a pet pig but will chow down on some bacon but well and cripsy, not thick cut or applewood smoked.  Hmmm.  One of the hardest things about being a chef is cooking for this lovely, goregous partner of mine that is picky as hell.  I recently made french onion soup and I have to strain out the onions for her but I made a batch for my dinners and pureed the entire soup together and she ate it up, onions and all.  Just when I think I know what she likes she throws a curve ball.  And she's allergic to duck.  Maybe some of you can relate.  I've known meat and potato men, meat and potato women, and kids who will eat only chicken and rice and then I've also met the other end of the spectrum.  When I was young I was pretty picky but I loved canned sardines, smoked oysters, pickled pigs feet and wild mushrooms.  I tried things. 
My partner will try things which makes me happy.  In two weeks we are going to Schwa and it's crossed my mind to ask Michael to not tell us what is in any of the dishes until we eat them.  We are going for my niece's birthday, she'll be twenty-one and she eats everything.  Both of these women live with me and for the most part I cook their dinners and we sit down like a family and eat.  It seems that the more I cook food that tastes like it's from a box, the more they love it.  Here's Beef Stroganoff, tastes like a box but it's from scratch.
1 lb. fresh pasta (the recipe I wrote the other day) or egg noodles from package
1 pint sour cream
1 lb. ground beef
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced
1 T vegetable oil
1 to 1 1/2 cup of milk or half and half or cream
1 pack of mushrooms, sliced
salt to taste and cracked pepper
Boil the noodles till al dente, strain and reserve on the side.
Saute the shallot and garlic in oil.  Add the ground beef and mushrooms, cook through and drain the fat.  Add the pasta, milk and sour cream being careful to stir as to not scorch the bottom or boil which will break the sour cream.  This is where I add my salt and pepper to mine and my families preferrence.  They like things a little saltier than I do so I adjust to about right in the middle of what they and I like and it works perfect.  You can add 2 oz of butter at the end to make it a little more rich.  Loosen with a little water if it gets too thick. 
I made this a couple weeks ago for them and they loved it.  I actually had some of the unpureed french onion soup made so I added some of that liquid along with the milk and sour cream for a nice extra layer of flavor.  I have to admit, it was good and it tasted a little like from the box.  Homemade "hamburger helper."

City Gardening

An irrigation system which collects rainwater from their neighbor's roof in huge drums and pumps it up two stories, about ten garden beds 6x6, some vegetables and fruits I hadn't heard of, dried strawberries on the vine that did not taste so much like strawberry but something bright, tart, leathery and berry-ish at once, Polish chickens -one named Martha Stewart.  Maybe this wasn't so much a rooftop garden as it was a rooftop farm.  I had the honor of visiting this mini farm in the sky today and it was inspiring.  Turns out this farmer, Breanne Heath, has a lot more going on than just farming, she's proficient in canning, being resourceful and is a forager.  She finds crabapples, paw paws, rosehips, mulberries, blackberries, raspberries, sour cherries basically if its a fruit you can eat on the street or in little hidden spots throughout the city she knows it.
She is currently in the process of building hoop houses for her garden beds which are awesome.  The cool thing is that they help insulate the building and the building helps keep the soil from freezing and with the hoop houses should keep it nice during the winter for heartier vegetables and leafy greens and hopefully with her permission, this winter I will have a course at One Sister Underground Dining called, Breanne's Rooftop Garden.
There is just so much we can do locally and it makes me so proud when I see people doing it.  I thought I was clever building my own garden bed.  This was by far the coolest and best garden bed/rooftop garden I have seen in Chicago.

Clarity Is Worth The Effort!

Clarity Is Worth The Effort!

In the little town of Hobart, Indiana there was a Korean restaurant with authentic Korean food right in the middle of nowhere.  My family knew this family from one of my Uncles having spent time in Korea in the 50's.  The daughter of this family, So Young (I don't know the proper spelling of her name but that's how I remember it sounded), fell in love with a man from my Uncle's platoon and she married him and brought her parents over.  Too bad the man she married lived in such a small place but it seems like it's often those guys and gals from small places that end up in deserts and jungles (but that's someone else's blog).  So she worked as a waitress in my parent's Polish restaurant for a time until her family opened their own ethnic restaurant.  I was probably three years old the first time I had a clear soup.  I remember when I thought my mother knew how to cook everything.  She was actually the chef of my parent's Polish restaurant, Jenny's Cafe, when I was in the oven.  People ask me how I learned to make pierogi and I often say, "I don't know, I suppose it was osmosis."  And it's kind of true, I just made them one day.  Anyways, I asked my mother all the time if she could make this clear soup.  She said, "It takes too long."  I asked, "how long."  She said, "real long, you have to boil those bones for hours and hours."  My mother cooked from scratch.  We always had bones bumbling around in stock pots with carrots and all those other lovely aromatic vegetables and herbs and whole skinned animals hanging from the rafters in our barn or complex layers of porky smoke billowing from the seams of our smoker.  But for some reason she would not make this clear soup.  It was my favorite.  I also loved the bean sprouts at that restaurant.  I'd order just a bowl of bean sprouts.  I remember sitting on a booster seat at a table with the window at my back, the bright neon lights of that restaurant, the cafeteria feel of it and some of the most unique and flavorful food I had put in my mouth.  I just could not understand how that flavor came from what looked and felt like warm water.  Well it wasn't until years later that I had that soup again, not the same one but one just like it at a restaurant called House of Kobe (something like a Benihana).  I was fifteen I think and then that became my favorite place to go for birthdays cause it was too expensive for anything else.  But wow.  Even now that I can make my own clear soups I have to admit I still like the soup there even if I leave smelling like a clove of garlic fried in oil.
Today I can clarify my stocks, making them nice and clean, no particles whatsoever and I can also make them close to clear, just a little shy of what they'd look like if they were distilled.  I'll briefly walk you through removing all the little imperfections from your own stock and some other time I'll walk you through turing your stock nearly clear and then even I'll tell you how to turn corn tortillas into a clear liquid, how I make my "fish taco bubble tea."
I'm going to do veal but you can use beef bones, lamb bones, pork bones it just depends on the dish you will ultimately make.
5 lbs veal bones
7 carrots- peeled and chopped
3 onions-peeled and chopped
2 stalks celery-chopped... Or one bulb fennel
1 1/2 T peppercorns (I use a mix of green, black and pink)
3 T Kosher salt
2 fresh bay leaves
Sprigs of thyme, enough that if held in hand would be diameter of a quarter
1 can of tomato paste
3 cloves of garlic
2 T canola oil
A stock pot and cold water filled to cover elements about 4-6 inches
Note: for a darker stock you can roast the bones and veggies first
First sweat the veggies, about ten minutes, then add the bones, add the water, herbs, peppercorns, only 2 T salt, etc.  Bring to a boil then turn down heat to a very gentle boil or heavy simmer.  Now let it alone for 8 hours, just stir from the bottom every once in awhile, especially if your pot is thin because the bottom can scorch.  Once the eight hours are up, strain the stock, reserving the liquid in one container, let it cool and cover placing in the refrigerator.  Then toss the veggies (I like to snack on the carrots) and reserve the bones, placing back in the cleaned stock pot, cover bones again with cold water about six inches and do the same with just the bones for another eight hours.  Once this is done, strain.  Take out the first stock, skim impurities and fat from top, strain into a clean stock pot along with the second liquid.  This is when I add about 1 more T kosher salt, just enough to feel the salinity on my tongue and to heighten the veal and vegetable flavors.  I reduce this liquid for about two hours at a heavy simmer.  I turn it off, strain it again, let it cool, skim impurities and then I place it back into a stock pot with about 1 egg white per every cup of liquid.  At this point it usually turns out to be between 8 to 12 egg whites.  I let it come back up to a gentle boil and using a flat bottomed spatula occasionally sweep it around the sides and along the bottom of the pot to help the egg white float to the top.  What this egg white does is form a raft which brings up the tiny particles of meat, veggies, etc and catches all of the left over particles as the stock gently boils over and around it.  I let the raft do it's work for about an hour then I turn off the heat, let it settle and using a ladle carefully strain the liquid through a coffee filter into a container.  Once I've strained out the liquid I discard the egg whites and taste my stock for salt.  Here I generally need a bit more.  At this point you should have a beautiful stock free of any particles.  It should be pristine.  Here you can reduce it a touch more if you'd like something a bit more potent or you can reduce it even further to make a nice reduction that will act as a beautiful sauce just on it's own with any dark meat.  The reduction should be glossy and coat the back of a spoon.  I hope you have fun with this.  It is so worth the effort.  Try it for the Holidays and blow your loved ones' minds.

Little More Classic

Going A Little More Classic

Recently as I was walking down the main artery of my neighborhood I stopped outside of a restaurant that had changed it's facade.  What use to be Charlie's Ale House is now Acre.  I like the name.  They are going with the local trend which should not be a trend at all and I hope it remains that way.  I grew up eating the vegetables and fruits from our garden, meats that we sourced locally and fish we caught, not always, but most of the time.  It seems only right to me that this is the way we try to be.  But that is not to knock anyone who gets things from overseas or elsewhere.  We just don't have certain things here and it's fun to have the variety.  Well anyways, I do a fair amount of reading and try to keep up with what's going on outside of my own kitchen, it's hard but it puts me to bed at night.  As I've been reading about the trends and curves and everything else I thought I'd go more classic with the Fall menu of One Sister Underground.  I was thinking of doing this anyways because it's been a little out there, not more than what some restaurants are doing but it's unique and I want it to be just a touch more approachable.  My last menu had brown spice cured lamb's brain that sometimes I interchanged with lamb sweetbreads, foie gras ice cream and goat's tongue.  But what really gave me the absolute push to change was that Acre had a section of their menu called odds and ends which had a lot of these offals.  So there will be no offals on the new menu (I will have the ice cream though because lots of guests have requested pints of it and it is tasty, different but tasty).  There will be more classic preparations and less use of new techniques.  I'm certain I will have a bubble here or there and maybe an agar agar set pudding, et cetera but those techniques will not be the showcases as they weren't before but they were more prominent.  I've also been reading how against the word "molecular gastronomy" some chefs are, either calling it Progressive American or Modern and so on.  I really try not to get to hung up on those labels.  It seems a little molecular to me (having quite an extensive background in chemistry) and it seems a little progressive and modern.  I think everyone might win in that situation.
This new menu will have the product which made the name for One Sister, pierogi.  Although this one you won't be able to find in the stores.  It will be smaller, to be had in one bite, filled with whipped yukon gold potatoes and specks of black truffle, topped with homemade truffled mascarpone cheese and chive.  It'll be yummy.  I'll also have a sea scallop ceviche with tomato water, lime, shallot, basil and mint; a hand-cut pasta with porcini and parmesan and chocolate souffle at the end.  Some other more twisted but still familiar items will be grilled cheese soup, French onion smores and a caramel apple apple pie "gobstopper."  I hope to see some of you there.