In an attempt to keep better track of what I can cook--well, not so well, with what seasonal ingredients, given certain time frames or lack of time limits, when we go out, and so on--I tried to keep track of what I made and consumed this week.
[Imagine French Onion Soup as you wish]
I had recently seen Laura Calder make
French onion soup on her show, which I'd never made, so I decided to try it out on Monday. Everything about the soup is pretty straightforward, but I found there were two big "excepts." Except you need, as Ina Garten likes to say, "really good" beef stock (when she says that, she claims to mean that you try as many whatever product you're testing as you can and decide which one you like best; in the case of stock, I think she means "make it yourself; how easy is that?"). I could understand this point, as the instant beef stock thingie I used tasted fine, but perhaps simple, so I might try making my own stock in the future. The other big "except" is producing the signature French onion soup look--broiling the cheese sprinkled on top of the soup. You need soup bowls that can withstand broiler heat, and I couldn't find any at Bed Bath & Beyond or at Crate and Barrel. So I just melted the cheese in the soup, and bought
these for future use. One other "except" might be that you're supposed to have some good bread to layer on the soup before the cheese, but if one follows
this bread recipe religiously as I do, it's not so bad. I know I vowed not to use this updated version of the bread but it's been fine and I try my best not to dislike people, including Mark Bittman. I watched
Alton Brown make this soup, and he put slices of bread under the broiler to toast, placed them toasted side down in the soup, and then layered cheese on top. My mom warned me not to use regular white bread for this (some experiment of hers in high school went awry and she's never made French onion soup again), so I stood by Brown's advice and it worked out. The bread isn't as soggy as you might expect. So, the soup was good, but not at all photogenic, so we'll just skip Monday's photo. For our "green" food, we had a
Green Monster smoothie, but Mordo adds random things on hand to make it better--this time, frozen pineapple and watermelon. Delicious!
Tuesday's menu was
white bean and kale soup and grilled pesto sandwiches. I like this soup because it's easy to make, though I adjust it by cooking the vegetables longer (I haven't tried using canned vegetables with this recipe; I just use tomatoes and carrots), and I also add as much cilantro as I have on hand. The cilantro gives a little bit of a tom-yum effect, which I don't consider a bad thing, but some might if you want to keep that "Tuscan" theme going. I wanted to make pesto, and planned to make pasta, but Mordo suggested grilled pesto sandwiches using Hippo bread. Grilling anything in Hippo bread is always a winner.
Wednesday was our third wedding anniversary. We went to Four Farthings in Lincoln Park for dinner. The inspiration behind this dining choice was Andy's wedding--there was a pit stop at Four Farthings to watch some college sporting event after the ceremony and before the reception and the location was selected because of Melinda's parents having gone there since forever, or something like that, being Lincoln Park locals. Mordecai and I did not go to Four Farthings then, but I liked the idea of there being some local joint for the people of Lincoln Park. I like to rub my butt in places where I don't quite belong, even if it doesn't matter in many ways. I liked the place a lot though--it's somewhere between slightly-fancy (for me) and casual, and seemingly reliable. Here's my softshell crab, which I'd never had, and whose flavor reminds me of something maybe-Japanese, but I couldn't quite place my finger on it. That sweet potato with brown sugar on top was a gem, too.
On Thursday, for the second time in my life, I made gyudon. I mostly followed
this recipe, adding as much mirin as sake and using about a tablespoon of
Ninben soup base instead of worrying about dashi. I produced my mom's gyudon in terms of flavor, but I should've let it simmer for longer so the taste would be a little stronger. I'm afraid of failing any donburi dishes, as it seems a cultural crime to be a Japanese woman and fail to make what children love and remember forever, but I think I just need a few more rounds of practice and I'll be okay.
On Friday, we went to a White Sox game. It was a nice way to end the week--I'm done teaching the summer course and can try harder to focus on my own work. The Sox won in extra innings with a beautiful walk-off home run by Alex Rios. I was mostly looking forward to a White Sox game because Shaun always gets a bratwurst, sometimes two, and I wanted to try one. It was delicious! Why would anyone ever get a regular hot dog?! Even I could've had two.
Last night, we met up with Kentaro, his wife, and his ever-growing young son. Hibiki is almost two years old, and apparently, all he does is eat rice balls, edamame, and citrus fruits. He may eat more than I do. We all went to Wasabi in Logan Square. That tonkotsu ramen was goooooood--I prefer it over any variation of Takashi's (Slurping Turtle and his station in the food court above Macy's) and it gives Mitsuwa's Santouka a run for its money. It's a little pricey, but it's nice to have that option so close by. We also tried Heavenly Gelato near the Blue Line; they offer vegan flavors, which is good for little ones who are allergic to dairy products. I was disappointed that the gelato is not really gelato--at least, it doesn't have that sticky texture I like. I obviously don't know what the necessary and sufficient conditions are to be gelato, but I know what I like.
And today, because of having too much zucchini from our CSA farmer and not even being a big fan of it in the first place, I made zucchini fritters using Korean pancake and "flying" (frying) flour mixes. For reference, I used
this recipe, but it was mostly useless. Whoever wrote it is right that you just have to eyeball it and you most likely can't fail if you know what to look out for. I also used more onions, because fried onions make everything better. I like the chewy texture of the Korean pancake mix, but adding the frying flour mix helps to achieve that crispy texture. I think you're supposed to make these kinds of pancakes when it's rainy and cool, not when it's hot and the last thing you should do is turn the oven on.
This coming week may be raspberry week, since Smitten Kitchen has a
pink lemonade bar recipe, and I'd like to finally try
Giada's raspberry vanilla smoothie. I really like the flavor of raspberry, even when it's sour to the point of cruelty, but why hasn't someone engineered them to get rid of the seeds?!
