Carnival Squash Bisque

Paul and I were planning out a dinner party for friends, and thought we'd make good use of the decorative squash we had purchased in October. We had bought two carnival squash, which are very pretty looking (and quite tasty, incidentally). We found a recipe for carnival squash bisque, which we decided to use for a base under some grilled chicken for the party. The recipe was relatively simple to make.


We first roasted the squash in the oven, adding some olive oil, salt and pepper into the whole squashes.

Carnival squash have seeds inside that look similar to a pumpkin.

Saute the carrots, onions and celery in butter in a large pot. Add the potato and stock (we used chicken), and bring to a boil. 

Here are the squash, roasting away! They look kind of puny in our oven, huh?

As the intended use of this recipe is a soup, it suggests scooping out the flesh of the squash, and using the outside for a bowl. Since we weren't making a soup, I cut off the rind, and used all the remaining pieces. 

Toss that in the soup, and cook for a little longer.

I have heard great things about immersion blenders (I'm asking for one for Christmas - I think I'd get a good amount of use out of it), but since I don't have one -- we pureed the mixture in batches in the food processor. 

Once back in the pot, add the cream, and season to your liking. At first we were a little concerned that it would be too bland to serve almost like a sauce underneath the chicken. Paul and I took small bowlfuls and tried mixing in different things -- I tried cumin, he tried rosemary candied walnuts, etc. 

At this point, I realized that I hadn't added in the thyme listed in the recipe (I still can't figure out where you're supposed to add it). That helped a LOT. Once we let it rest and cool down (we made it the night before in case of disaster), the flavors became more strong and we weren't so worried about adding spices or other ingredients to jazz it up.

Here's how we served it -- reheated, under grilled chicken in herbs de provence and a little olive oil. The combo worked really well together -- the thyme in the chicken coating matched up with the soup/sauce.

Were we to make it again, but as a soup, I think I would add a dash more cream to make it even more like a bisque. You could also run the soup through a sieve if you don't want to have bits of pureed vegetables and thyme in the soup.

Weekend Quiche

I have started buying several quiche shells to keep in the freezer for weekend breakfast. It gives me an excuse to have heavy cream in the house as well. 


The one we made this weekend included kale, tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese. You can really combine any ingredients you want -- we have made them with all different vegetables(spinach, basil, kale, collard greens, tomatoes, onion, mushrooms) and meats (we've used pancetta, bacon and salami), but usually try to mix ingredients that will go well together. I like using a nice hard cheese like Parmesan or Gruyere as well.

The prep work isn't too bad, you just don't want the ingredients to be too different in size or they may cook unevenly. You don't want a raw squash cube and a mushy mushroom.

Heat the over to 375 degrees -- but keep the quiche shell frozen until you need to use it.

Super colorful!

The base I use is 1/2 cup cream, 1/2 cup milk, salt, pepper, and 4 eggs. I also love using thyme with eggs as well, so I put a bunch of thyme leaves in with the egg mixture. 

Action shot. Ignore my pink bathrobe in the background.

Sadly, I have no "after" picture -- we were just too hungry. But it was pretty tasty. The one thing I think I would change is to reduce the amount of tomatoes included. It ended up making the quiche a little soggy, even after cooking it for 45 minutes (which should be plenty of time).

Vacation -- Part 2

Part 2 -- New York and Columbus! 


In New York, we had dinner at several delicious and unique restaurants. The first night we were in town, our friends took us to Pravda, which is a Russian vodka bar. 

We couldn't figure out which bathroom to use because it was in Russian, but it's cool. I like adventure.

I was a little scared at first, but it ended up being really cool. We started off with some delicious cocktails (I had a rosemary martini which was amazing), and a zakouski platter - which included potato pancakes with smoked salmon, roasted eggplant dip, scrambled eggs with caviar, and spinach and cheese pirozhki. I like caviar. It's official. Didn't know it -- now I do, so watch out, people.

We also tried the homemade potato chips with crème fraîche and caviar (noticing a pattern here), potato and caramelized onion pizza, ham and cheese croquettes, a couple more potato pancakes with salmon (they were super delicious) and crispy oysters with fresh horseradish and salmon roe. Yum. 


I also got a little ambitious with the drink ordering, and convinced myself that I wanted THE GOGOL (I leave it in caps on purpose so it sounds extra intimidating), which was horseradish vodka with a pickled quail egg. Yup. I don't know what I was thinking, other than that I like horseradish a lot and that I would rarely get this opportunity again to have something like this. Lesson learned. It was really interesting and unique...and tasted like eating a mouthful of horseradish. Which is fine for a couple sips, but then I ordered some tomato juice and ended up concocting some sort of version of a bloody mary. The quail egg was good (yes, I ate it).



The infamous bagel shot of the previous post was from Russ and Daughters, which is an amazing deli/shop where we had some delicious bagels with fresh smoked salmon the following morning.

I chose something a little different, but you get the idea.

I am still having dreams about this meal two weeks later. We grabbed coffee and the bagels, and sat in the park eating them on a beautiful morning -- a pretty cool experience. I also completely skipped lunch that day because I was so full and happy from the bagel.

Taken from the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You can have a cocktail and check out the skyline. Yes, it's as cool as it sounds.

Mid-afternoon on our second day, we walked the High Line -- which is a park that was created on an old train line. We made a couple stops along the way and before we headed to dinner. My favorite stop was at The Standard Bar -- I enjoyed a delicious drink there that included gin, lemon, raspberry puree and was topped with champagne. I am encouraging Paul to have champagne on hand to make me delicious drinks like this in the future. 

A photo taken on the High Line.

Our last meal in NYC was at Chinatown Brasserie, which was another tasty stop. We had two different kinds of dumplings, delicious chicken lettuce wraps, Crispy Orange Beef, Sweet and Soup Shrimp, Chicken in a Black Bean Sauce, and Pork Fried Rice -- all of which was really good with a couple Kirins. 

I did a horrible job of taking photos of places we ate or the food we enjoyed. Thank goodness for the internet.

While our stop in Morgantown consisted of some sort of deep friend pepper jack cheese balls and a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich (neither of which I am complaining about -- they both served their purpose), we ramped things up when we got to Columbus.


In Columbus, we went to Basi for dinner with Paul's cousin Meredith. We camped out on the patio and started with a bottle of wine. Mere ordered the mozzarella caprese with sun-dried tomato jam and basil, and Paul and I started with the grilled endive with roasted pear, taleggio cheese and smoked almonds. As many of you may know, I had a bad experience with taleggio (which consisted of me buying it, being horrified by the smell, trying to eat it while plugging my nose and eventually throwing it out), so this was very adventurous of me. It was really tasty, and I didn't event have to plug my nose (ask Paul). The bitterness of the endive was paired well with the creamy cheese and pear. For mains, Mere got mussels (one of the many delicious specials), Paul ordered the potato gnocchi with roasted mushrooms, butternut squash, tomato and truffle butter, and I ordered the lobster pasta with wilted spinach, lemon and vodka-tomato sauce. Absolutely delicious. It was made all the better by great company (clearly), tasty red wine, and an awesome ambiance sitting out on the patio of the restaurant. 

I didn't take this photo, but you can imagine us sitting at that communal table on the right side. Desperately trying to stop ourselves from bragging to everyone that what we ordered was the best.

On our way to dinner, we swung by the North Market. We picked up some awesome looking handmade butternut squash ravioli (and some veal/truffle ones which I'm beyond excited to eat) from Pastaria Seconda, and Meredith grabbed us some rosemary walnuts, which she insisted would make this delicious. Man, was Meredith on target with the walnuts! They added something really special to the dish. 

Once we got back to Chicago on Sunday, Paul made a quick brown butter sauce, added in the walnuts, and stirred in the cooked ravioli.

Eating light after our road trip? Maybe next week.

Holy. Moly. It was awesome. The rosemary walnuts flavored the brown butter sauce, so you needed nothing else to eat it with. The ravioli were delicious and had just the right balance of sweetness in the filling. 

Paul couldn't believe how much I ate. Seriously. I think he was hoping there would be leftovers. Nope.

Now that we're home and back to somewhat of a normal schedule, we'll pick up where we left off cooking at home more regularly. I am going to try to hunt down a deli that has fresh smoked salmon -- that I'm not sure I can live without.

Vacation -- Part 1

I think the theme of our trip was: Eat your face off...2011.

This was before we left for the trip, when we could actually jump.

For our road trip, we drove to Warren, OH; then to outside Washington, DC; then took a bus to NYC; back to DC; over to Morgantown, WV; to Columbus, OH; then back to Chicago. It was a long drive, but quite beautiful in the Fall -- and we were sure to get our fill of whatever food we could get in each place. Our first exciting stop was once we got into the DC area. Paul and I were lucky enough to spend most of our first wedding anniversary in the car, but made a late night dinner reservation to celebrate. We had decided ahead of time on VOLT, which is located in Frederick, MD - and is owned by Brian Voltaggio, a former contestant of Top Chef. 

A photo outside VOLT -- we were way too preoccupied to take photos of our dinner. 

I think Paul and I have been lucky enough to eat a lot of delicious meals, but this was one of the best (if not the best). You can see some of the menu items here, but a few of the items we had aren't listed on the menu. Based on the recommendation of our waiter, Paul and I each ordered three courses, and but then opted to share a dessert (which ended up working out great for us -- see below). We were offered all kinds of interesting breads to start -- I had a cheddar biscuit and Paul had a prosciutto infused bread, which literally tasted like you were eating a slice of prosciutto and not a regular slice of bread. We were also served a neat amuse-bouche that looked nothing like, but tasted exactly like a chicken wing with blue cheese and hot sauce. 


I started with the autumn garden salad, which included beets, petite carrots, radish slices, coffee soil (which was ground coffee, almonds, Guinness, and something else) and goat cheese. I am huge fan of beets and goat cheese, so I loved it. Paul had a lobster roll that was served in rice paper, with an avocado mousse and a wasabi foam. Yup. We ate foam. It was really interesting and quite tasty, not weird and gross like we thought it would be. There was a little girl (probably 6 or 7 years old) sitting by us, who remarked "Ooh! Bubbles!" for one of her dishes. I felt the same way, little girl!


For our seconds, Paul had the pork belly with rice porridge, a barely cooked egg (I think it was a 60-degree egg or whatever they call it), and a pork crackling. The waiter said it was inspired by pork fried rice -- and it was delicious. I had the cavatelli, which may have been my only misstep of the night. The pasta was made with rye, and included 4 kinds of broccoli -- broccoli rabe, broccoli florets steamed, a broccoli puree and broccoli that was browned under the salamander. It also had some preserved lemon and a dollop of sheep’s milk ricotta. For me, the browned broccoli was too bitter. From how the waiter described it, the lemon and ricotta were to cut through the bitterness -- but unfortunately, it just didn't work for me.


My main, however, was amazing. I had the sea bass with black garlic potatoes, sunchoke, brussels sprouts, and chive pudding. The fish was cooked perfectly, and all of the ingredients worked amazingly with one another. Paul had the lamb, which included cauliflower, crispy panisse (which is similar to polenta) and small dots of a sweet potato puree underneath. The lamb was also cooked very well -- and Paul is all excited to make lamb at home. 


For dessert, we had ordered a pear dish that included poached pear, a pear sorbet, a Guinness tuille, some sort of powdery stuff similar to the top of a crumble, and a pear 

gelée (which I was afraid of, but was actually good). In addition to our ordered choice, we were brought two additional desserts, which was pretty cool. We also were served an orange and chocolate semifreddo and 4 small dessert bites -- a berry jelly (similar to a soft gum drop), a bonbon, a cookies and cream candy, and a chocolate filled with a rum cream. It was awesome. I love dessert, and could barely eat everything that was placed in front of us because I was so stuffed. 

The ambiance is fancy, without being pretentious. You've got white tablecloths, but the waiters are wearing Converse sneakers. Each course gets it's own silverware, and they serve still OR sparkling water (which is a fun little treat). I would highly recommend going there if you're in the DC area. 

Hanging out with Abe.

During our second day in DC, we pretty much hit the highlights of an eighth grade field trip. We visited the monuments on the National Mall, took a Capitol building tour, and midday -- stopped for lunch at Graffiato, Mike Isabella's restaurant (we were doing the Top Chef tour, apparently). 

Whee! A restaurant photo!

Paul and I had a great meal there as well. They have prosecco on tap -- which was half of the reason I wanted to go there. We started with a burrata salad, that included honey glazed onions and nigella seeds (which I had to look up to figure out what they were).  We tried the chicken thighs in pepperoni sauce, which was heralded by the judges when it was made on Top Chef Masters. It was awesome -- the sauce tasted just like pepperoni, included and went perfectly with the crispy chicken thighs. 

Yeah, vacation!

We also had a pizza that was topped with taleggio (which normally frightens me -- see Part 2 of our trip for further detail), mozzarella, ricotta, prosciutto, and black pepper honey. The honey was surprisingly tasty and an interesting final touch alongside the salty prosciutto and the creamy cheeses. For dessert, we had one of the seasonal gelatos -- a rosemary honey mascarpone. It was FANTASTIC. I could have had three servings of this and wanted more (the couple glasses of prosecco mid-afternoon may have contributed to that).

America.

Before we headed out to NYC, we also tried America Eats Tavern, which was created in partnership with the National Archives and their exhibit, "What's Cooking, Uncle Sam?" It is a restaurant created by José Andrés, and the concept of the restaurant is "a new take on American classics, celebrating native ingredients and some long forgotten dishes." We had lunch with our friends Danielle and Brian, who we were staying with, and tasted a bunch of the dishes offered. 


We tried several appetizers, including the hush puppies, buffalo wings, shrimp remoulade with fried green tomatoes and "vermicelli prepared like pudding." Of those choices, we liked the shrimp remoulade and the vermicelli best -- both were quite good, with the vermicelli being quite unexpected (it tasted a lot like cheesy noodles).


For our entrees, I ordered the croaker, Paul and Brian had the oyster po' boy, and Danielle ordered the lobster roll. I only tried the po' boy, but I really liked the croaker that I had ordered. The fish was cooked really nicely and the greens on the side were flavorful and complimentary with the croaker. Note: if you can't tell, I was trying to eat as much seafood while in DC as possible. I even ordered fish at an Irish pub just because I could. Paul's po' boy was pretty good, but of our two -- I think I was the winner (it is always a competition between us as to who made the better choice for meals). 


Of all the restaurants we ate at in DC, unfortunately this was probably my least favorite. It's not that the food was bad -- it just didn't amaze us. However, I think the concept contributes to that - if you're giving a dish like macaroni and cheese and giving it your own spin, you're bound to have people who don't like your particular spin. I was impressed that the restaurant's existence was connected to the Archives exhibit, and hope they do something like that here. 


Part 2 -- New York and Columbus! 

Preview from Road Trip 2011

The object of my dreams for the last few nights:

I added capers, but you get the picture. The deliciousness was had at Russ & Daughters. Birthday gifts can now be sent in the form of Scottish salmon.

Foodies on the Road!

On one of our many road trips. I think this is some sort of Last of the Mohicans reference.

Friends, P and I are setting out on a super fun road trip over the next few days for our first anniversary. While we won't be doing much cooking, we will DEFINITELY be doing a lot of eating. We're looking forward to sampling culinary delights in Washington, DC and New York City. I can't wait to try some new things, and post some delicious photos to make everyone jealous...I mean...give us some inspiration.

Lemon-Tarragon Halibut En Papillote

I pulled this recipe out of one of my magazines ages ago, and have been waiting to try it. It looked so easy and delicious that I couldn't wait to give it a try. I had been keeping my eye out at Dominick's for halibut, but the sign kept reading, "Coming soon!" We finally found some halibut at the fish market, and seized up on the opportunity. 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Soften 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter (I usually nuke it in the microwave in 10 second increments until it's the right consistency). Cut parchment paper into four 18-inch-long pieces.

I have no idea if this was 18 inches or not, but it worked.

Fold each piece in half, and cut into a half heart shape, using the fold as the heart's center.

Awwwwwww. Special.

Prep fennel (1 cup, julienned), 3/4 cup snow peas (cut diagonally into thirds) and carrots (1/2 cup -- they ask for shredded, but I did peeled, and it worked out fine). Place fennel, snow peas, and carrots in a bowl with 1/4 cup water and microwave on high for 4 minutes. Drain the vegetables once they are cooked through. 

Fennel and halibut go really well together.

While the vegetables are cooking, slice 1 lemon in half crosswise. Cut one half into 8 thin slices, then juice the remaining half. Combine 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter, and 2 teaspoons of finely chopped fresh tarragon.

We had bought one big halibut fillet, so we cut it into four (somewhat) evenly sized pieces.

In case you were wondering, yes, our bamboo cutting board still smells like fish.

Add 1/4 of the vegetable mixture to each of the parchment pieces, placing it along the fold.

Not s good with the lighting here, but you get the picture.

Place fillets on top of vegetables and add salt and pepper. Divide butter mixture among each serving, dotting over tops of fish. Top each fillet with 2 lemon slices.

Yum. Looks tasty!

The directions say: starting at the top of each heart, fold the edges of parchment in, tucking the edges as you go. Twist the end tip to secure tightly. I don't know what the heck I did, but I managed to close them up. I think the most important part is that the parchment is closed so that the fish and veggies can steam.

Place packets on baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes or until the parchment puffs up. I think we kept them in a few minutes longer, since some of the fillets were more thick than others.

Hello, buttery, lemony goodness.

DELICIOUS. And so easy to make. If you're willing to the extra legwork with the parchment paper (and really, it's not that much work) -- I think the fish come out great. You don't have to worry about the fish drying out since it is steaming in the parchment packet. Paul and I both had leftovers for lunch at work the following day -- nuked them in the packet in the microwave at work, and they STILL were moist and tasty.  

I am totally going to do this again.  Maybe with a different whitefish or salmon, and a corresponding veggie combo? I imagine you could do sliced bell peppers, spinach, kale, maybe even potatoes if you sliced them really thin. Enjoy!