Big flavor in a hurry: Asian Turkey Burgers with Sriracha Mayonnaise

Weeknight quick to make, turkey burgers get a flavor boost from hoisin sauce, green onions, ginger, garlic, soy sauce and a topping of Sriracha mayonnaise. Recipe below.

There are Sundays that lend themselves to giving in to indolence, lounging about and doing nothing more ambitious than occasionally stirring a pot that cooks for hours. This past Sunday was not one of those. We spent much of the day hiking around the National Restaurant Association Show in the cavernous McCormick Place (motto: “You’ll love our 2.6 million square feet of hard concrete floors”). Then, because we apparently hadn’t walked enough, we did a little more hiking along Chicago’s lakefront.

After a day of walking and grazing on various delicious, mostly fatty foods (more about the restaurant show next week), we wanted a dinner that wasn’t a fat bomb, but still delivered big taste. And personally, I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on my feet in front of the stove. These Asian turkey burgers were just what we needed. Continue reading “Big flavor in a hurry: Asian Turkey Burgers with Sriracha Mayonnaise” →

Small Bites: Women invade the butcher shop and I was a Top Chef: The Tour judge

L.A.’s woman-owned Lindy & Grundy butcher shop is just the latest example of women breaking into this macho field. And yes, I was a guest judge when Top Chef: The Tour breezed through Chicago.

For some time now, butchers have been sharing the food rock star status first bestowed upon chefs and later on farmers. When one of our favorite chefs, Rob Levitt, hung up his toque (which in his case was a Yankees cap) to open his own butcher shop, The Butcher & Larder, the local press proclaimed that Chicago finally had a rock star butcher of its own. (And truth be told, Rob still wears the Yankees cap.)

Increasingly, though, women have been invading this former boys club, turning up in butchery classes and behind the counters of butcher shops from Brooklyn to San Francisco. Amelia Posada and Erika Nakamura have taken the trend a step further, opening their own shop. Continue reading “Small Bites: Women invade the butcher shop and I was a Top Chef: The Tour judge” →

Beef and Pork Ragú: A hearty, meaty meal for yet another chilly weekend

Ground beef and chunks of pork are slow cooked with tomatoes, peppers, carrots, mushrooms and paprika to create a hearty, rustic ragú. Recipe below.

On a recent quick trip to New York, we wandered around Eataly, Batali and company’s bustling temple to all things Italian (New York magazine calls it the tourist trap locals love too). Roaming through aisle after aisle of pastas, Marion happened on a bag of calamaro—giant, sturdy tubes named for squid. I could tell by the way she smiled as she showed me the hefty noodles that she would come up with a perfect use for them. She did. I’ll let her tell you about it.

It is flat-out refusing to stay warm here. We have these occasional days that are, frankly, just hot, where after days of unseasonable cold it suddenly, spitefully, turns 85 for like one day. The warm weather comes on too abruptly to be any fun at all. We are inevitably at the office wearing too much, too thick clothing. We get home and the apartment is stuffy and hot. The cats stagger around, collapsing randomly here and there and glaring at us: I can go no farther—you did this to me. Then within a few hours huge storms wash through and the weather turns crazy cold again and just. stays. that. way. Tomato planting? Forget it. Continue reading “Beef and Pork Ragú: A hearty, meaty meal for yet another chilly weekend” →

Small bites: Organic farming on a Chicago roof and wild-caught fish from the wilds of Minnesota

The nation’s first certified organic rooftop farm and a sustainable fishing success story are subjects of a pair of recent USA Character Approved Blog posts.

The last two weekends have found us at garden centers. We don’t do a lot of gardening (and by we, I of course mean Marion—I mostly just carry the occasional bag of cow manure), but garden centers are always inspiring. They instill hope for the spring that continues to merely flirt with us. Standing in the checkout line with our half dozen tomato plants and about as many herbs got me thinking about the resurgence of urban farming in the last few years. One of the most exciting places urban farming is happening right now is on the roof of a Chicago restaurant. Continue reading “Small bites: Organic farming on a Chicago roof and wild-caught fish from the wilds of Minnesota” →

The delicious taste of sustainable success: Sautéed Walleye Fillets with Tarragon

Incredibly fresh, sustainably caught walleye fillets from the Red Lake Chippewa reservation require little more than salt, pepper and tarragon, then a quick sauté in butter to be delicious. Recipe below.

Fish are the last wild food. Well, they’re the last wild caught food humans eat on a large scale. And unfortunately, we’ve been eating them on too large a scale—according to the World Health Organization, we’ve doubled our per capita fish consumption in the last 50 years. Many species are in serious decline, and the fishing industry as a whole faces major challenges.

In his book Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food, Paul Greenberg says this growing appetite for fish cannot be sustainably satisfied by wild fish alone and that fish farming or aquaculture will actually overtake wild catch in the next few years. Aquaculture is not without its own problems—efforts must be made to greatly reduce its environmental footprint. That’s why the success of the Red Lake Fishery’s wild caught walleyes is particularly heartening. Continue reading “The delicious taste of sustainable success: Sautéed Walleye Fillets with Tarragon” →

Sweet, tart and savory: Goat Cheese Tarts with Leeks and Apricot Preserves

Frozen puff pastry makes these tarts easy to prepare. Their delicate savory/sweet flavor makes them hard to resist. Recipe below.

The intersection of sweet and savory is a sweet spot for me. I love how the flavors complement each other. And the geek in me loves how they cause different sets of taste buds to fire off at the same time, leaving it to your brain to sort out the sensations colliding in your mouth.

I also love easy, which is among the reasons I tend to shy away from baking. But recently, I saw a recipe for individual tarts using frozen puff pastry. (Yes, I’ve seen—or more likely, tuned out—tons of recipes involving puff pastry in the past, as I’m sure we all have.) For some reason, though, one particular recipe caught my eye recently, and I thought, “I’ve got to remember this. I’ve got to bookmark this.” Of course, I did neither. Continue reading “Sweet, tart and savory: Goat Cheese Tarts with Leeks and Apricot Preserves” →

Small bites: Professional foragers for the home cook and great food for a good cause

A new USA Character Approved Blog post and women chefs raise money for the Greater Chicago Food Depository at the 15th annual Girl Food Dinner.

We occasionally pick up mushrooms at our local farmers market. Often when we do, we learn that they had been growing somewhere in the woods until earlier that very morning. Welcome to the world of professional foraging. As chefs and restaurants get more locavore and more adventurous, ingredients gathered from forests and meadows are turning up on more and more menus. And a whole new job title is springing up on resumes—professional forager.

Well, not so new for some. Connie Green (pictured above), founder of Wine Forest Wild Foods, started gathering wild chanterelles for leading San Francisco Bay Area restaurants back in 1979. And recently, she’s started offering home cooks access to some of her wild bounty. Continue reading “Small bites: Professional foragers for the home cook and great food for a good cause” →