Phonetic Smellings

Image from Andrew Huff

Cinnamon Cooper wrote a great article for Gapers Block on this geometrically satiating vegetable, romanesco. Check it out for a handful of good recipes.

I love finding vegetables that I’ve never seen, then figuring out how to cook them. Sometimes the abundant farmer’s markets around Chicago offer interesting breeds of veggies, but there are two produce markets where you can find interesting and fresh produce year round. The first is Stanley’s. Stanley’s is centrally located on North Avenue, just east of the Kennedy. My favorite thing about this place is the olive oil selection. They have vats of it steeping with various flavors – garlic, basil, ect. You get a bottle and fill it up yourself. Stanley’s is great, but if I can ever go out of my way, I go to Caputos. I frequent the one on Lake Street in Addison, but there are a handful of these scattered throughout the suburbs. Last winter, I was making Limoncello, and I found lucious and large lemons on sale for 10 for $1. The quality always seems to be better than what Jewel or Dominick’s offers, but for about a quarter of the price. They also have a near infamous deli with any kind of meat that you could desire.

Where do you guys shop for produce and things?

This is my world famous Lemon Bar recipe. I used to make these for an ex-girlfriend who didn’t like me very much, however I cared for her tremendously and as a result I spent a lot of time trying to figure out ways to make her happy. That being said, these didn’t get me very far but I did learn how to bake the living shit out of a Lemon Bar (and a Lemon Bar will never kick you out of its house and take your dog away from you). – S.

You will need a 9 x 13 glass baking dish, lightly greased (I prefer the spray variety as butter or oil tends to torch the crust). Glass really works best. Believe you and me, son, I’ve tried them all. Metal, glass, ceramic. Use the glass.

Ingredients:

For the crust:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup powdered sugar
2 sticks of unsalted butter, cut up into cubes
8-9 twists of a sea salt grinder

For the filling:
2 cups granulated sugar
6 tbsp. all purpose flour
1 heaping tsp. lemon sugar*
4 eggs
2 tbsp. powdered sugar for dusting
2 large pinches of granulated sugar
8-9 tbsp. ReaLemon brand concentrated Lemon juice. Accept no substitutes and avoid fresh lemons like the plague in this circumstance. They will do you absolutely no good. Promise.

*this, unfortunately, is “the rub” as they say: a company called “Spice Island” used to sell a jar of “Lemon Peel” which contained sugar, lemon peel, and lemon oil and is really the reason why my Lemon Bars work so well. AFAIK “Spice Island” no longer makes this lemon peel/sugar concoction and only sells straight lemon peel. It is easily reverse-engineered (lemon sugar, duh), however YMMV. In any event, unless you really know what you are doing, omit this step.

Preheat the oven to 350°

Prepare the crust as follows:

In a large glass mixing bowl combine the flour, powdered sugar, and sea salt. Using your hands (I have tried every method under the sun for this step, i.e. pastry cutter, however IMO using your hands gives you more control over the consistency of the crust) work the butter into the crust until you are left with a consistent, crumbly mixture. This takes awhile, and for what it is worth, is a zen thing for which the nuances are more or less impossible to convey with words. It takes an awful lot of trial and error. Bake the pain away.

Pour the mixture into the lightly greased glass dish. Firmly press the crust into place, ensuring that the mixture is evenly dispersed. As a last step I like to use my fingers to pock-mark the crust (consistent small dimples, or impressions across the surface of the dough, kind of like you are making a pizza) so that the filling integrates into the crust seamlessly.

Bake for 20 minutes, and not a minute more. Consistency is key.

The filling:

While the crust is baking prepare the lemon bar filling. In a large glass mixing bowl add the granulated sugar, flour, and lemon sugar and stir until mixed evenly.  Add the four eggs and whisk, by hand, until the eggs turn a pale yellow color. Next, add the lemon juice (again, it’s a Zen thing, sometimes 8 tbsp. feels right, sometimes it’s 9, go with your gut). If you are really feeling adventurous, perhaps you could go with 10 tbsp. of lemon juice. I would be interested to hear your results if you choose this path.  Continue whisking until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed.

After 20 minutes take out the crust and SLOWLY pour the lemon filling directly upon the crust (hastily slopping it about can break up the still-delicate crust). Furthermore, it would be in good taste to give the filling another quick mix with the whisk before baking as the particulates tend to sink to the bottom; stir them up before placing in the oven to ensure your flavors are even distributed. Place back into the oven and continue to bake for 25 minutes, and again, not a minute more.

When the lemon bars have finished baking, carefully remove the dish from the oven and set on a wire cooling rack. As a precaution, while the bars are still hot, I like to take a knife and delicately run the knife along the edge of the lemon bars and the glass dish; the thinking here is that as the lemon bars cool, the sides have a tendency to stick to the glass rim while the rest of the pastry pulls away resulting in a sloppy looking dessert). While the bars are still hot, sprinkle the top of the bars with a light coating of granulated sugar (the intense heat of the fresh-from-the-oven lemon bars will melt the sugar and exist as a kind of invisible coating on the surface–alas, this is nothing more than an added fail-safe geared for the expert variety sweet-tooth, but should remain more or less unnoticed to the novice).

Allow the lemon bars to cool completely, cut into squares. Remove from pan and finish off with a liberal dusting of powdered sugar. Arrange on your favorite platter.

Basic Ingredients: · Ripe Avocados · Onion · Cilantro · Lemon or Lime · Tomatoes · Fresh Garlic ·
Hot Peppers (Habanero, Jalepeño, Serrano, or something similar) · Salt · Fresh Ground Pepper

photo from mpslori

Last night I coached my roommate through making guacamole for the first time – it came out all kinds of delicious! This Aztecan dip is something that doesn’t have strict measurements, so there is a lot of room to play. And it’s something anyone can do. Traditionally, guac is made in a molcajete, but a fork, or even fingers work just as well. Below are some pointers or techniques that I have learned over time in making guacamole. Please, add some tips of your own!

The basic process: I match equal parts avacado and tomato, the rest is to taste. Finely chop everything up and then mash with a fork. Voilà!

• The Avacados. The two most popular cultivars are Hass and Californian. Most types of avocados are grown in California, but the one that carries it’s name is larger than most and more vibrant green in color. I prefer the Hass (named after the mail carrier that originally cultivated it), which is also the most easily accessible. If the avacado is hard and green, it will be difficult to mash. You want some give when you press on the skin. If it has a lot of give and seems squishy inside, it’s liable to be brown and overripe. If you get hard and green avocados – put them in a paper bag overnight to hasten the ripening process.

• Lemon or Lime? Sometimes I use both. But I always use lime over lemon. I just prefer the taste. The acidity of both work to break apart the consistency of the avacados, and keeps the green from browning. Sometimes people add sour cream as a preservative to keep from browning, but I don’t like to dilute the taste of the fresh ingredients in this way.

• Salt. Kosher is always best. The thin flakes just mix better. A few tablespoons should do ya.

• Cilantro. Substitute with Italian Parsely if you must. For three avacados worth of guac, I grab a fistful and chop it up very fine. I add it in smaller increments, so as to get the right amount. I usually leave a few full leaves aoff to the side to garnish the top at the end.

• Onions. Red onions work well to add a contrasting color to the mix. But absolutely any onion will do. You can leave this out, but it really helps maintain a chunkier texture.

• Peppers! Do you have a favorite? Use that. I usually choose the pepper based on the crowd I am trying to please. Habaneros are my favorite, but they top the Scoville Scale as the hottest peppers available, at least in Chicago. Habs can be too hot for a lot of people. Red peppers can add a nice color. Often, I’ll mix a couple different kinds of peppers. Leave the seeds in for heat, but you may choose to remove them.

Possible Additions: Paprika, Cumin, Worcestershire Sauce, Chili Pepper, …any other suggestions?

I must admit, I didn’t try Co·op hot sauce until it first came to me on Kuma’s Plague Bringer. Supposedly, it’s been known as the best hot sauce to be found in Chicago. And it is. But where is it to be found? You can’t get it in the local grocery store, and only a handful of restaurants offer it. And, much to my chagrin, Kuma’s is no longer going to be one of those restaurants. Well, this deliciously smokey and spicy sauce can only be bought directly from Humbolt Park’s Co-op Image Group.

Cooperative Image Group creates public arts education programs with youth of communities in need. Through collaboration between Chicago area artists and youth, Co-op Image strives to strengthen community through multimedia arts education. [coop mission]

They work with children of Chicago to build skills, community, and opportunity. One of the many positive things to come out of this program is this delicious hot sauce. You can buy it off their site for roughly $5-7, but it only lets you buy one bottle at a time. I wanted to buy a lot – at least 12, so I contacted Jessica Baer, as indicated on their site. She was very nice in helping me get all the hot sauce I could handle. She even offered to drop it off at my house. How cool is that?

Does anyone know of any other establishments that have Co-op hot sauce?

Steven Wirth and I have been talking about starting a food blog where we can collect the recipes we love and the angel puzzle activities that inspire them. This seems like a project that quite a few people I know could contribute to. Who doesn’t like to eat? And most of my friends, have a penchant for culinary aesthetics, or default to avid foodies. I was going to register a url and host it, but I’ve been lazy, so we can start here and move it to a more custom platform later. So, this is kind of a test to see what we can come up with. Cheers!