Hands Back In The Dirt!
I have been terribly busy the past two months, between work and all the pr events, menu changes and trying to stay on top of spring housework I have had very little time or energy to blog. I did however take pictures! Above is my garden as I left it last year, pretty straight forward its a plot of dirt. I battled with all the weeds, some wet areas, some dry spots and re designed the garden this year. I have been working the soil for 5 years now, lots of compost, lime to break up the clay, peat moss to lightnen the soil in certain areas etc.
This is after I did the work, 4 raised beds, 3 rows and an irrigation system for each section of the the garden. I installed a weed block fabric and mulch, easily enough to move away to tend to each row in the fall/spring when turning in compost etc.
2 of the beds are for strawberries, currently since I transplanted into the new beds i have froast blankets on them and I installed the bird netting over the new row hoops so I can actually enjoy some berries this year!
This is my root crop bed, currently also under frost blanket, completely planted and doing amazing! I have garlic, green onions, red onions, vidallia onions, red radish, french breakfast radish, a mixed bag of carrots, red, yello and chiogga beets. Im excited because in the fall I will top this box with a cold frame and keep my garden going!
My new pride and joy, the irrigation system! Every row, or box has its own control. Perfect watering only to the plants that need it.
My vegetable seedlings growing outside on a warm day, soon they will be in the ground!
Pop Up Vegan Tasting
The email came through that guests of theJames hotel needed a vegan tasting menu, excellent! Its not often we get requests for vegan cuisine afterall we are Chicago’s premier steakhouse! This day took me back in time when I was just a line cook working at Trio in Evanston for Chef Shawn McClain, I was on entremetier (veg station). We had tons of food requests, special diets and overall a passion and audiance to create great cuisine highlighting vegetables.
I started out with some simple nibbles in the lounge, grilled eggplant arancinis that we placed on a bed of crushed nicoise olives with roasted garlic and fresh oregano. Three sisters farm grit cakes topped with smoked mushrooms and sweet and sour peppers. The last nibble was truffle root vegetable crostinis. Look at that knife work, my Sous Chef Nolan clearly passed skills class!
We had to play with our new kitchen toy, seeing the look on my Sous Chef Dino’s face when he plays with the cryovac machine is priceless, he’s happy Dino! We made compressed watermelon carpaccio topped with marinated kumatos, watermelon radish, slivered onion rings, cucumbers, fried capers, fried ginger and mint.
We had some beautiful local baby carrots, I cooked each seperately golden with garlic, orange with ginger and purple with chilies. They were cut into small rounds and tossed with dried baguette and the remaing cooking liquids and parsley to make a panzanella. This was wrapped in basic eggless pasta dough and baked. Garnished with olive oil poached fennel and a pesto of arugula and hazelnuts.
At this point in the evening the rest of the guests at the table were eating steaks and drinking bigger red wines, so I took a simple and beautiful approach to match. Grilled king trumpet mushrooms, asparagus and watercress emulsion, corn shoots and (below) caramalized caulifower and olive oil crushed yukon gold potato gratin with fresh thyme.
Dessert, I didnt get to take a picture but it looked and tasted amazing. John a.k.a. PC1 and Amanda made a heirloom apple crisp with organic oat struesal and orange sorbet. A fun day of cooking during a classic Chicago winter blizzard!
Original Carrot Top
It’s great to see my garden finally growing; all of this cool wet weather has really slowed things down. Today is absolutely beautiful and I will be outside planting more seeds, more flowers and tending to the garden. My vegetable garden is 20 feet wide by 32 feet long, I compost all vegetable scraps, lawn clippings, ash from the fire pit as well as leaves etc. throughout the year. This is year 4 of the garden and the soil is finally getting there, the compost really enriches the soil and the lime has helped break down so much of the clay that it’s a lighter well drained soil. Previously my home was an apple orchard, different soil needs to grow trees, but like anything it takes time to perfect. I have herbs planted around my deck and patio and my fruit crops and lettuces are by the garage. My buddy Rod Markus from pasture to plate hooked me up with some amazing seaweed based fertilizer, the plants love this and immediately grow like crazy.
Here is a rundown of what’s in the garden this year:
Vidalia onions, green onions, French breakfast radishes, red radishes, Thumbelina carrots, dragon carrots, red & gold & candy striped beets, swiss chard, arugula, green zucchini, pickling cucumbers, sweet market more cucumbers, straight 8 cucumbers, watermelon, Thai peppers, bell peppers, jalapeño peppers, pole beans, shelling peas, corn, Brandywine tomatoes, green zebra tomatoes, san marzano tomatoes, golden cherry tomatoes, red cherry tomatoes, spearmint, thyme, chives, German garlic, German chamomile, oregano, rosemary, sweet basil, cilantro, sage, lavender and strawberries.
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