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al GRESHco feast 7-29-10

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:59:20 +0000

Last night I hosted another al GRESHco feast, my bi-weekly farm to table dinner. Always allot of fun to get in the kitchen and cook, last night was a bit sad however because this is the last time Holly Willoughby and I will cook one of these together because she is opening her own restaurant next month. Holly has always been my partner on al GRESHco and everything Green City Market, I will truly miss her. I wish you the best of luck Holly, everyone go check out her new resto in Lincoln Park called Aquataine which is located at 2221 North Lincoln Ave.

Heirloom tomatoes are tossed with fresh herbs, olive oil and a splash of sherry vinegar. The broth around the plate is yellow tomato water. Topped with a seared scallop and some mini arugula.

Heirloom Tomato & Scallop

As soon as I laid eyes on these plums from Seedlings Farm I turned to holly and said we are cooking foie gras tonight! The base is a thick cut petite brioche loaf prepared in a vanilla accented french toast style. We smeared the top with the sweet “magic” plums that were caramelized, cooked down with orange juice and finished with the rendered foie fat! YUMMM! Topped off with seared foie gras, a drizzle of the sweet plum liquid and then the sour yellow plums were sautéed with thyme and finished off the plate.

Foie Gras with Sweet & Sour Plums

The “Corn”ed Chicken dish is a boned out chicken where I use the entire chicken skin to wrap it back up into shape. The breasts are left whole while I make forcemeat with the legs and garnished with lots of black pepper and shrimp. The entire chicken was then cooked in corn juice for 2 hours. It was then sliced and served over pea tendrils, vadiallia onions, a truffle corn sauce and a few Chioggia beets.

"Corn"ed Chicken

Grilled Lamb Loin served over beautiful haricot vert and a sauce made from cooking heirloom tomatoes with fresh garlic and a touch of veal demi glaze. The eggplant torta begins with grilled eggplant that is then chopped and sautéed with shallots, garlic and fresh herbs. I folded in a few chopped hard boiled eggs and topped it with buttered breadcrumbs accented with red chili flakes.

Lamb Loin & Eggplant Torta

I Have Too Many Zucchini!!!

admin — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:31:34 +0000

Zucchini Grande!

As most things in life when it rains it pours! I recently was extremely busy with work and neglected my garden for a few days; yeah I know “bad gardener”. I have since made up for it and my crops love me again! I was stuck with the age old dilemma what to do with this zucchini especially the really large ones that generally are tough and fibrous when cooked. I already had a great flank steak marinating for 2 days in the fridge begging to be grilled, so I pulled out my Vita-Prep Blender (best blender out there, it will grind up anything!) and pureed both the skin and the flesh separately. I let the flesh drain through a chinois (fancy chef term for a fine mesh sieve) and kept the skin separate and cold to add a great color to the risotto. Many times we cook vegetables in their own juices to intensify the flavor, same goes with pasta or risotto in this case. I used entirely zucchini juice for the liquid, finished with just before serving with the skin puree and of course a little bit of diced zucchini, topped with the grilled flank steak and marinated cherry tomatoes and onions from the garden in extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Now thank god thats one less loaf of zucchini bread out there!

Peeled, Chopped Zucchini

Zucchini Skin

Zucchini Flesh Juiced

Zucchini Skin Puree

Risotto with Onions

Zucchini Risotto

Grilled Flank Steak, Zucchini Risotto & Marinated Tomatoes

al GRESHco Feast 6-30-2010

admin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 23:39:57 +0000

This week I unveiled LORD STANLEY, when the Chicago Blackhawks made it to the playoffs we started an all natural starter made from flour, water and organic grapes. This fermented until the Blackhawks beat Philadelphia and brought the cup home. In every kitchen Ive worked in we have always named our starter, its a living thing that needs love and attention, daily feedings and overall some excercise too. There was only one name that fit, at last Lord Stanley was named. Enjoy the photos, I appoligize I didnt take a photo of the smoked beef dish, I was too busy nibbling on the trimmings!

Walking the Lawn at the White House

admin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:36:01 +0000

In June I had the honor of being one of the 700 chefs who were addressed by Mrs. Obama for the Chefs Move To School iniative. It was a great treat to walk on the south lawn of the White House and the vegetable garden. Im excited to help my school incorporate healthy food education in ways never really done before. For example instead of teaching children in math class fractions on a pieces of paper, have them adjust recipes and measure out dried beans using measuring cups. Get the children involved in understanding where food comes from in history class instead of just the “Columbus sailed the ocean blue….”, how the plentiful supply of food or lack their of shaped countries accross the world. If you want to learn more about this iniative please check out – http://www.letsmove.gov/index.html

Oh How I love PORK!

admin — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 16:47:34 +0000

I had another offsight charity event, decided to make a prochetta. George from Swan Creek Farm brought me one of his fantastic pigs. I took the skin off first leacing it attached to the head, made a fennel forcemeat garnished with toasted pinenuts and started building it by laying a layer of housemade hot coppa. Next came the forcemeat and then the loins. I rolled it up and tied it off. the next morning we roasted it in our la caja china roasting box, served it with ramp pesto. You can tell by the pics I love to have fun in the kitchen!

This was after the event! All guests were served!