This time, we decided to do different menus to experience two separate dinners. Dave went with the Grand menu, and I decided to go with the vegetable based one. It isn’t vegeterian, some things are made with beef stock, but it can easily be made vegeterian. I also went with the ‘Beverage Accompaniment’, while Dave went with the wine pairing.

Each course had eight dishes, but they were very different. I’ll write about mine and Dave can share his.

Pickled Baby Radishes with Chive

In this dish, the radishes were sliced up fairly thin. They were also pickled which gave them a bit of a soury-vinegar taste, which I liked. This was a very simple dish.

Michigan Heirloom Tomatoes with Fava Beans, Okra, and Chervil

In addition to having small tomatoes on the plate, this also had a think sauce made from tomatoes. There were fava beans scattered around the plate.

Globe Artichoke Soup with Spearmint and Spun Honey

This was my favorite of all of the dishes. It came in a bowl that was empty except for the spun honey, which sort of looked like a marshmallow. They then poured the artichoke soup into the bowl. I had thought the spearment was a part of the soup, but if it was it was a small part of the soup. There were small spearmint leaves sprinkled around in the bowl.

The soup was very creamy and tasted surprisinly good, considering that I didn’t think pureed artichokes would be tasty. It was the best when you got a bit of soup, spun honey, and a spearmint leaf on your spoon.

Adirondack Blue Potato with Fingerling Potato Blini, Mustard Seed, and Queen Anne’s Lace

The blue potatoes were mashed and spread out on the plate - I was not sure what it was at first, it was just this blueish-purple blob on the plate. I really enjoyed the blue potatoes. The potato blinis were very good, as well. They were small - about the size of a silver dollar. I did not care for the mustard seeds inside of them, though. There were also small potatoes scattered around the plate, which were a bit more firm than I was expecting, but still good.

Grey Morel Mushrooms with Miso, Toasted Koji, and Shiso

I can say now that I’ve had morel mushrooms, and really, I do not care for them. To start with, they are NOT good looking at all. If you don’t know what they look like, you should do a google search for them right now. Got it? Yeah, ick. BUT, I was willing to try them. Second strike: squishy. That is such a turn off for me. I hate foods that squish in my mouth. Still, though, tried them with the different sauces, cut them up into pieces, and ended up eating a whole one. I couldn’t face the others that were on the plate, so I let David eat them. Way to take one for the team, honey.

Jasmine Granite with Apricots and Tahitian Vanilla

Ahh, the part that I was most looking forward to, dessert. (That’s the reason I’m so excited for Tru - Gale Gand does the desserts there!) This was a very simple looking dessert: an cooked apricot in the bottom of the bowl with a scoop of the granite on top of it. Granite is shaved ice - it was like a fancy snow-cone. The granite tasted exactly what like jasmine smells like. It was wonderful.

Stewed Rhubarb with White Chocolate Yogurt and Coriander Shortbread

This was very good.  The rhubarb was cooked down into a sauce, with the shortbread on top of it, and covered with a scoop of the yogurt.  Awesome.

Mild Chocolate Semifredo with Carrot, Star Anise, and Red Wine

This looked like a scoop of chocolate ice cream in a carrot soup.  I thought that the carrot flavor would mingle nicely with the chocolate, but instead it was VERY carrot tasting.  While I enjoy carrots, I do not like them as a dessert.

Homemade Oreos

Makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookies

For the chocolate wafers:
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 to 1½ cups sugar*
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (1¼ sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:
¼ cup (½ stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
¼ cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375 degrees.
2. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
3. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.
4. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2-3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.
5. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. Dunk generously in a large glass of milk.

* Let’s talk about the sugar for a minute, shall we? This is a sweet cookie. A good, sweet cookie. Yet, if you think of an actual Oreos, the wafers are fairly un-sweet and actually on the slightly salty side, which contrasts with the super-sweetness of the filling bringing harmony, happiness, yada yada. If you want your cookie closer to that original, you can take out a full half-cup of the sugar. I usually do. If you want to make the cookie by itself go ahead and use the full amount.

I made my cookies with the smaller amount of sugar - rather than using the cup and a half, I used only one cup.  They were still sweet, but not overly sweet.  The chocolate was well-balanced with the filling.
I was a bit worried because my dough was not coming together very well - I thought I didn’t let my butter soften enough or maybe I should have melted it.  Dave said to have faith and let the mixer run for a few minutes and sure enough it came together.

Overall, this was a very easy recipe to make - the cookies only baked for 9 minutes and while they were baking I threw together the filling.  If it were up to Dave, I don’t think the dough would have even made it into the oven, he liked it that much.

Let me start out by saying that we usually don’t ever spend THIS MUCH on dinner. We went here because Dave wanted it as his Christmas present and this was all that he got from me (I covered half of the cost of dinner, and the other half came out of ‘our’ account’).

Dinner started at 6pm and we had to dress up, as men are required to wear a jacket! We asked if we could bring our camera because, of course, we had to blog about it. We actually totally missed the restaurant - it’s a very nondescript building with only a very small sign outside stating the building number. Walking up to the very large and plain door, we opened them and walked into a very futuristic-looking hallway. We walked down the hallway and were sort of confused because there didn’t seem to be a door at all. Then we saw these large metal doors, but they had no handles of any sort. We stepped towards these automatic doors and walked in.

We were immediately greeted, our coats were taken, and we were lead to our seats. The confirmed that we had the tour (24 courses) and asked if we wanted the wine with it, as well. We were spending $195 per person for dinner and they told us that the cost of the wine would be 3/4 of the price of the food (I like how they didn’t mention an actual price). We turned it down because of the cost, but next time I think we might save up a bit more and do that as well, since they have an incredibly knowledgeable staff making wine parings for each dish.

Throughout the evening we were serviced by 8 different people! We had a few regulars who would bring us the dishes and silverware, clear the plates, pour more water, etc. There were also a couple we only saw once or twice throughout the night when a particular course was served. With each course the waiter or waitress that dropped off the course stayed for a minute or two to detail to us everything that was going on in the dish and, where applicable, how to eat it. Surprisingly, you sometimes needed to be told how to eat it.

From here on out, with the exception of the dish description we’ll denote which one of us, Chris or Dave, is speaking by having a “C” or “D” at the beginning of that excerpt. Since we were both there and both have different impressions, we felt this would be a good way to do it all in a single post without being redundant.

C: Before I start talking about the food, I want to give the disclaimer that I am a recovering picky eater. Just a few years ago I refused to try new foods and only ate my small, regular, familiar groups of foods. I did my best to try everything, but some things did gross me out and the texture of some things really got to me.

1st course: Trout Roe - coconut, pineapple, licorice

C: I’ve had fish eggs before, on sushi, and did not like them. I was not excited to try this dish, but figured that since we were paying so much that I might as well. The ‘ball’ part of the dish was coconut and the foam was pineapple-y tasting. In order to disguise the taste of the roe, I made sure to get a bit of each in the bite. It was actually very good! The coconut and pineapple were very fresh tasting, and the roe was soft and almost popped in your mouth. There were small sprigs of basil in this dish and it was the best basil that I’ve ever had.

D: Sorry about the picture quality on this one (and on some others)….I really had a tough time getting good photos without a tripod or flash. That said, like Chris, I was really nervous about the trout roe. The trout roe was hand harvested by a friend of the chef and was very interesting when paired with the pineapple foam, coconut, dehydrated pineapple and a small syrup dolup that I couldn’t place. The first bite was a lot firmer than I anticipated and the textures were really interesting and had a high level of acidity that paired really really well with the roe that had a bit of sweetness to it. It was a great way to start out the evening and break the ice of nervousness of what we were looking to have.

2nd course: Crab - passion fruit, avocado, heart of palm

C: This is one of the ‘one bite’ courses that were offered. The crab was wrapped in a passion fruit ‘fruit roll-up’, then wrapped in thinly sliced avocado, and then in heart of palm. I had problems with some of these ‘one bite’ dishes, and they were a very large mouthful and it felt like it took me forever to chew them.

D: I love sushi. I love crab. So this dish sounded great to me. The spoon on this plate had a little sour kind of gel attaching the spoon to the plate. So when you picked up the spoon and put the entire piece in your mouth at once that was the first flavor that hit your mouth. So the dish started out sour and then as you began to chew the crab and its flavor started to hit. The passion fruit then added a nice flavor and then the dish felt sweet before going back bitter again. It was really fantastic and I couldn’t have been happier through two courses.

Eating sushi wasn’t what I had in mind when we got to Alinea, but I can’t complain one bit. The first two courses also went together with the Riesling we had chosen well too.

3rd course: Yuba - giant praw, miso, togarashi

C: This was Alinea’s take on shrimp tempura. You can’t tell from the picture, but there was a very long, thin straw of tempura. They told us to think of this as a fountain pen with an ink well - dip, take a bite, and repeat. This was very neat, as the softness of the shrimp was offset with the crunchy of the tempura. I have no idea what the sauce was that we were dipping into. Also, do not let these pictures deceive you - this takes up the whole picture, but in actuality it was a very small dish. Keep this in mind and you check out these pictures.

D: Normally tempura goes on the outside of the shrimp or prawn or whatever. In this case, the dish was served inside out, with a rod of fried tempura (this is an oversimplification, as the process to get the tempura film to do this was far more complex, but I didn’t take copious notes on it) and then a giant prawn wrapped in a spiral around it. As Chris mentioned, they told us to think of this as a pen and an inkwell. If the tempura and prawn was the pen, then a miso sauce was the inkwell. The sauce had a mild sweetness to it that I thought worked well with the taste of the prawn. The sauce, though you can’t see it here had a rich yellow color that sort of made me think of a dijon mustard. I love Shrimp Tempura so this was a really really really interesting take on the traditional dish.

4th course: Salsify - caper, dill, smoked salmon

C: The salsify (salsa-fee) was breaded, so it was hard to tell what it tasted like for real. There was a bit of smoked salmon, a little mound of a lemon sauce - I thought that would be better off as a dessert, and some green sauce. This was just ok.

D: Give me some smoked salmon any day and I’m a happy camper. There was so much going on on this dish I don’t even know how to describe it. What I can say is that when you were able to get a bite of all the elements on a single fork you were treated to an array of textures and flavors. There was the fantastic smoked salmon texture and then the smoothness of the salsify, then the lemon sauce was kind of a gel that was a little bit gummy. The lemon sauce added a good balance of bitterness to the rest of the dish. Overall, not one of my favorite dishes on the evening, but definitely interesting with the way that it presented the salmon, plus I’d never heard of, let alone had, salsify before.

5th course: Beans - many garnishes, pillow of nutmeg air

C: A PILLOW OF AIR! This was the coolest presentation! They brought out a pillow and then put the plate on top of it (it’s hard to see the pillow in the picture). The pillow had both nutmeg and mace in it, and as the plate settled, the scented air wafted up. It was really cool. Ok, but on to the food now: There was a base of bean curd with dehydrated panchetta on top of it (and more of the foam!). There were 6-7 different garnishes along the sides - I can’t remember what they were, but they were all delicious.

D: Like Chris said. A. Pillow. Of. Air. Not just air though, it was a pillow filled with a nutmeg vapor that you could actually see rising from the pillow. This was our first taste of the large role aromatics would end up playing throughout the meal. On top of the bean curd was a spiral of dehydrated panchetta and on top of that a foam of…something I can’t recall. Garnishes included pear with molasses, dehydrated apple, and 4 or 5 other goodies. And when I say goodies I mean it. Chris and I both wish this dish would have lasted a little longer. The nutmeg vapor added far more to the dish than I was expecting as well. I mean, I like the smell of nutmeg, but I suppose I should realize that most of our taste comes from the scent of what we’re eating. It should make sense the we should be able to enjoy and enhance a dish with the smell, even if it doesn’t contain the ingredient we are smelling.

6th course: Duck - butternut squash, banana, Thai flavors

C: This is one of the courses that a special server came out to give us, and explain to us how to eat it. This came in a small cup with a fork balanced on top of it. In the cup was a butternut squash soup, and there was a bite of duck on the fork. The idea was that you ate the duck and then drank the soup all in one motion. There was only about a mouthful of the soup, so it was not difficult to eat.

D: This was one of my favorite dishes on the night. Duck is a favorite of mine, so it was also great to see Chris get to eat it for the first time. The duck had a trio of garnishes on top including curry powder, a small piece of habenero pepper and something else I can’t recall. The duck’s gamey flavor was certainly toned down from other times I’d had it and it had the distinctive kind of crunch you might expect from Peking duck, but the flavor and texture more closely resembled a firm steak.

You ate the duck first, then washed it down with the butternut squash soup which tempered the heat from the pepper. The soup itself was incredibly rich and had a nice foam of itself on top. Yum.

7th course: Sweetbread - cauliflower, burnt bread, toasted hay

C: I did not like this course. I am not a cauliflower fan, and that was the majority of this one. I could not figure out what was going on with this one, but it turns out that there was a lot of deep fried cauliflower. There were also large chunks of veal on the plate.

D: I disagreed with Chris on this dish. Not saying it was the best of the night, but I did enjoy it very much. The veal sweetbread was really tasty to me and it certainly came at the right time through the meal to give me a little more meatiness that I felt like I was ready for. There were little pieces of fried cauliflower all over the plate. These were very interesting and I doubt I would try to make them at home, but it was a neat way of doing cauliflower. The toasted hay was also something I definitely wasn’t expecting, but ended up enjoying it.

8th course: Hot Potato - cold potato, black truffle, butter

C: This was another course that someone brought out and explained to us. This was one of my favorites. The small bowl was a cold potato puree, and the metal toothpick help some warm potato pieces. To eat this dish you had to pull out the pin, allowing the top pieces to fall into the bottom ones, and then eat it all at once.

D: Really really neat way of presenting this dish. When they were describing it to us they said to pull out the pin, like on a grenade. How cool is that?! On top of the hot potato was a thin slice of black truffle. There was a lot of black truffle throughout the meal…on this dish I would be interested to see what it was like without the truffle. Nonetheless, once the hot potato met the cold potato puree you were supposed to eat it out of the little dish like you would oysters on the half shell. I’m just glad it was a potato and not an oyster, but that’s a whole other conversations. The flavors melded together excellently on this one and the different textures were really neat in your mouth. The cold potato puree was incredibly rich and the hot potato with truffle were firmer and balanced out the dish well.

9th course: Pork Belly - smoked paprika, polenta, pickled vegetables

C: This was such a cute little dish! I can’t believe how small it was. At the bottom of the pedestal is the polenta, the the pork belly is in the middle, and it was topped with some vegetable and some sauce. Again, it was only one mouthful but it was a large mouthful. The pork was very soft and chewy and it dominated the other flavors in my mouth.

D: Talk about a smoky flavored dish. You ate it all in one bite and you were greeted with the creamy texture of the polenta, then the barbeque pork texture of the pork belly, then a bean like veggie on the top rounded it all out. This was one of my favorites all night long. I mean, how can you go wrong with something so smoky! Well, I suppose you can, but they certainly didn’t. It was an excellent dish and I wish they would have set up 5 or 6 of these in front of me.

10th course: Roasted Pear - foie gras, candied fennel, sweet spices

C: I had foie gras and IT WAS GOOD! In the past year, foie gras was banned in Chicago and restaurants would get fined if they were caught selling it. I was very surprised to see it on the menu, so I asked about it. The server said that they can serve it as long as it is free - but they cannot sell it. So this course was a ‘gift’ from the chef! That’s a cute loophole!

This dish came in a small bowl. The foie gras was cooked so that it was almost a ‘lid’ to the bowl. After the server put the bowl down, she poured a roasted pear soup on top that caused it to collapse and that’s what you see in the picture. This was very creamy and savory. It was also very rich and I could not finish the whole thing, but I wish I could have. This was one of my favorite dishes.

D: As Chris said, Foie Gras! Never had it before, and to be honest, while I wanted to try it, it scared me a bit. My fears ended up unfounded as they brought this dish out however. The foie gras was very silky in texture…but I didn’t notice a distinct flavor of it by itself. Then I was eating it alongside the pear soup that was absolutely divine. I wish I could do a better job describing this dish, as it was so good. I just don’t do it justice.

11th course: Caramel corn - “liquified”

C: This was just weird. It was presented in a shot glass-sized glass and tasted exactly like caramel corn, but was a liquid. It was just a very odd sensation to *drink* something that you usually eat. Not that it was bad, it was just sort of creepy.

D: Eating liquified caramel corn is not my idea of something I’d expect to find in a place like Alinea. Then again, so many things we tried that night weren’t what I might have expected. This really did taste like Caramel corn. When they first said the name I was expected it to taste like those terrible candied corn things you get at Halloween. So I was very pleasantly surprised when it tasted like actual caramel corn fresh from Garrett’s or some other good place to get caramel corn. Then to have it in a drink? Really neat. Texture / viscosity of this was along the lines of egg nog…at least that is the best I can do to describe it. I do wonder how you would liquefy something like caramel corn that has almost no water content in the first place and still maintain the strong flavor that stays so accurate.

12th course: Cranberry - frozen and chewy, bitter orange, chervil

C: Oh, how cute! This was just a small ball of cranberry sorbet, right in the middle of dinner. It was sour and a bit bitter and it was excellent. This was delivered on a small spatula (you can see the bottom of the dish has a groove for it) and to eat it you just picked up the toothpick in it and popped it in your mouth.

D: This was a great pallet cleanser to have midway through our meal. The sorbet was so cold and refreshing and the bitter flavors along with the melting action served to really clean the mouth and prepare it for the rest of this marathon. As Chris mentioned, there is a little pin sticking out of the dish there and when I first picked it up the pin pulled right out. I actually thought I’d busted the pin! In reality? I’m just a dumbass. I stuck the pin back in and tilted it to the side to pick the sorbet up and it all worked out just fine. Just goes to show that even when you think that it is obvious how to eat a particular thing, you might be just a little bit off.

13th course: Chicken Skin - truffle, corn, thyme

C: I did not care for this dish, but Dave loved it. It was a ball of chicken skin with other things mixed in. It was not greasy, but I also did not think it was good. But look at the cute bowl that it was served in!

D: Yes. Chris and I certainly disagreed on this dish. My favorite part of fried chicken is the skin. My favorite part of a well roasted chicken, is the crispy skin. So its no surprise that when they brought out this little cube for fried chicken skin, black truffle, corn and thyme that I enjoyed it immensely. This was a very slick dish…or maybe because of the little spatula being shined to a high gloss it seemed slick and the cube had a tendency to try to slide off the spatula. Nonetheless when the dish hit my tongue the first thing I noticed was the salty flavor you expect with chicken skin. What I didn’t expect was the chewy, not crunchy, texture throughout the bite. I could have eaten a couple more of these as well.

14th course: Scallop - sunchoke, orange, chamomile vapor

C: Again, a forgotten picture. Dave was so excited to taste this one that he couldn’t wait to eat it. This was served in two bowls - the outer bowl had pieces of dried chamomile in it and when it was served to you they poured hot water on it and it smelled so great. The inner bowl had the scallop. I’m going to be honest - without the picture I don’t remember this course. I’m not a fan of scallops so this was not one of my favorites.

D: I suck for not taking a picture of this. Chris did a good job of describing the basics of this dish, and without the picture it is difficult to describe it in detail. I love scallops, and was super excited for this dish. The sunchoke, which I’d never had before was particularly tasty. I must say thought, I was ultimately disappointed. The scallop was considerably more chewy than I was expecting and that really detracted from the experience on this dish. It was also a little bit on the rich side with the scallop being a little too buttery.

15th course: Apple Cider - walnut milk, cinnamon, vegetable ash

C: This was the best course! This dish was delivered in a shot glass, as you can see. It is a ball of, well I’m not sure what. The idea was that you shot it back and then closed your mouth right away because inside the ball was apple cider. You could feel the ball pop and then your mouth was filled with this lovely cider. It was presented well and it tasted so good!

D: By far one of the most interesting presentations on the night. There was this ball that I believe was made up of walnut milk and vegetable ash and it created a very very delicate ball and inside the ball was apple cider. This was also a much larger course than we were expecting…the ball was just deceptively small looking in the shot glass. So tasty thought…I’d never had apple cider that was as wonderful as this little ball was when it popped in your mouth. And it did pop. As soon as the ball was all the way inside your mouth the little thing just shattered. It was so good and such a neat way to present it. It was one of best of the evening.

16th course: Wagyu Beef - black trumpets, cedar branch, aroma

C: Look at how neat this is! It was a bowl filled with cedar branches (again with the aromatics!) and there was just a small cube of beef at the bottom. You can just barely see the metal toothpick coming out of the branches. I think there was some sauce at the bottom of the bowl, but it was hard to see and get at.

D: This is Wagyu beef. If you aren’t familiar, this is a Japanese beef. To elaborate, unless I’m mistaken, which is entirely possible, these cows live a very pampered life, including, but not limited to, being massaged with a liquor into their skin on a regular basis. Ultimately this is considered one of the most desirable pieces of meat in the world for both its tenderness and flavor.

Additionally the beef was covered by a number of freshly cut cedar branches. I love the smell of cedar, so the aromatics were definitely working for me here. Like the sorbet before, you need to kind of tilte the needle as you pull it up. This piece of meat was cooked rare (not to say uncooked, but just barely so) and was one of the most fantastic pieces of beef I’ve ever had the pleasure to enjoy. The taste and texture, coupled with the aromatics from the cedar branches made this one of my favorite dishes on the evening.

17th course: Black Truffle - explosion, romaine, parmesan

C: This dish was *wonderful*. I’m not sure if you can tell from the picture, but the small bowl it was served in had no bottom! The brown that you see isn’t a sauce, but our table. The server mentioned that a few times people tried to go for the sauce and ended up nicking the table.

This was one of the most rich and savory dishes that I’ve ever had. There was black truffle in the ravioli as well as seated on top of it. This was also one of the only places that we saw cheese in the whole dinner! We were very surprised at the lack of cheese.

D: One of the most overwhelming dishes on the night didn’t come with a particularly fancy dressing. Instead, as Chris mentioned, we were warned that it was a bottomless saucer, not an actual sauce we were staring at underneath the spoon. When I ate this I wasn’t quite sure what to think. You had this incredible, to use Alinea’s word, explosion of flavor that was primarily black truffle, and at the same time the most delicate piece of ravioli that has ever come to my lips. The pasta was so silky smooth it seemed closer to a dumpling than a piece of rolled out dough. Nevertheless fantastic execution of a fantastically rich item.

18th course: Lamb - mushroom, red wine, diverse embellishments

C: There was a lot going on in this dish - it was almost overwhelming. I was not sure what I was eating with each bite, while the server did point out most of them it is sort of daunting to try to remember each thing. I was not a fan of this dish, but I think Dave enjoyed it.

D: Chris is right, I really like this dish. First off, I love lamb, and with the exception of one time, at Quartino, I’ve never been disappointed. In this case, I was ecstatic. Much to my happiness there was also a lot of fungus joining us on this particular adventure. We had varieties from all over the world (though trying to say it I won’t give it justice).

In the foreground of this photo you’ll see some bacon (or something bacon-y surrounded by lentils and mint. Other parts of the plate had a cayenne pepper gel tto dip in. The lamb itself was particularly succulent with a nice red wine sauce…which was far thicker than I anticipated, draped over the top.

19th course: Transparency of Raspberry - rose petal, yogurt

C: This was one of the moving dishes. The camera is reflected in the base, but this came in a circular clip, that when the server put it down he pushed it ever so slightly and it started rocking back and fourth. This was crispy but sweet. It was hard like candy but very, very thin. It also had small pieces of dehydrated rose petals on it.

D: Generally speaking I’m not a sweets fan. However, when this rocking dish was set in front of me I couldn’t help but get excited. You think, “Oh, a rocking piece of sugar, how quaint.” But let me tell you, this was a sublime desert. I know you see the camera in the photo there, and that is the base this was served in. As Chris mentioned, they rocked it once they set it down. Literally. The server pushed it and started it in motion. I tried to get a good video clip of it in motion, but it didn’t work out so well. This, whole, looked like a large maple leaf. Taste wise it was very sweet with a little bit of bitter mixed in with the rose petals.

How anyone can make something this thin and fragile and still be able to transport it to a table and have me be able to eat it is beyond me. If you’re looking for an example of how Alinea can make the impossible possible…if the apple cider course and a few others didn’t already do it, look right here.

20th course: BACON - butterscotch, apple, thyme

C: Bacon, as a dessert! This was another moving dessert - the base rocked back and fourth. The bacon was covered with a thin layer of butterscotch (I couldn’t taste it, though) and had small pieces of apple on it - you can see those at the bottom of the bacon. This was nice and smoky but not too sweet.

D: Bacon. Apples. Thyme. Did I mention bacon? This was the best piece of bacon I’ve had in my life. Hands down. The bacon came on this pendulum with the bacon in the middle and as the pendulum swayed, so did the bacon. You ate this dish by pulling the bacon off the wire and then eating it bite by savory bite. The bacon, like many thinks on the evening, was dehydrated and had a nice juicy kind of texture that imparted all the smokiness you’d expect from a good piece of bacon. Not only that, though, the dried apple had an almost fruit roll-up kind of texture that blended in perfectly with the chewiness of the bacon. To find a savory dish like this, served as desert, is a rare find indeed and it was a pleasure of the senses to enjoy. I think, with my tendency towards loving bacon to a disgusting level, this dish was my favorite, overall, on the evening.

21th course: Maple Syrup - banana, parsnip

C: Did you ever have Dippin’ Dots? That’s exactly what this dessert is, except they were balls of maple syrup. They were so cold on your tongue! The larger ball in the back is parsnip, and you were supposed to take a bit of the maple syrup and a bit of the parsnip together. This was really cute and tasted so good!

D: Ever had something that moments before was doused in liquid nitrogen? No? Ok, then you haven’t had this dish. The little balls are maple syrup frozen by liquid nitrogen that you could see “steaming” out of the bowl. In the middle was a banana and parsnip custard that despite being frozen, was far warmer than the maple syrup. The waiter suggested that we not have the syrup alone, as it was too cold for the tongue, but why listen to him right? I’ll tell you why, because he’s right. Those little dots burn your tongue when tasting just one of them. However, when you pair it with the banana and parsnip custard it was absolutely delightful. There was the great banana flavor coupled with the sweetness of the maple syrup. I’m not a desert person, but I was certainly a fan of this dish. Plus, with the little dots it looked incredibly artistic.

22nd course: Chocolate: egg, pomelo, smoke

C: I don’t have a picture of this one! It was one of the few that we forgot!

This had a square of pudding in some crust that was dusted with cocoa powder, an egg yolk that was frozen, then dipped in chocolate, and then thawed out (so that when you broke into it, the yolk ran all over), a piece of Brioche that was dusted in chocolate. This was my favorite and I am very sad that we didn’t get a picture of it!

D: What a shame we don’t have a picture. On the left side of the plate was a little chocolate “egg” that had an egg yolk inside that had been cooked, then liquefied, then frozen, then dipped in chocolate, then thawed. On the right was a cocoa powder cake with some kind creamy filling that was divine. Then there was a shaving of brioche that ran throughout. The balances of everything were great and not getting a picture of this is a huge regret. The tastes were up there on the night and in terms of desert…for the deserts, this was the best. Have I said that a few times so far?

23rd course: Licorice Cake - muscovado sugar, orange, hyssop

C: This was served at the end of a long rod, so that when the base was on the table the cake was right in your face. Don’t be confused with the string of balls that seem to be attached - those are part of the decorations on the walls. This was a cube of licorice cake and it was covered with spun sugar. Now, I love black licorice but this was even a bit for me. It was very strong and again a very large mouthful. I also wish I could have been able to eat this in two bites.

D: You ate this desert like you would if you were giving head with no hands. That sounds disgusting, but was the first thing that came to mind when you starting eating this. Who said food can’t be sexual anyway?

The dish was very very very strong in the licorice department and a little much for me. Additionally, I was very surprised by a crunchy-ness I wasn’t expecting. I’m still not sure if the crunchy texture I was getting was a result of the spun sugar (really, a high-brow version of cotton candy) or something else inside. The taste was good and interesting and all…but I think I’d just as soon pass on this one in the future.
24th course: Persimmon: carrot, red curry, spice strip

C: The spice strip here was like one of those melty tongue strips that I’m sure you’ve all seen. It was very cinnamony. The idea was that you put that on your tongue and pressed it against the roof of your mouth while you ate the cake. We forgot to take a picture of this one, as well, so I don’t really remember it.

D: I missed the boat on the picture too, sorry. Remember the fresh strips that stuck on the roof of your mouth? Thats how this dish started out. After that you had this persimmon pudding with carrot and red curry. I really enjoyed this dish and for me the spicy cinnamon overtones of the strip really complimented it well. Chris on the other hand might disagree. I’d never had persimmon pudding before, which is ironic as my dad loves it…then again the rest of the family hates it. If this taste was any indication…I’ll side with Pops in the future.

25th course: Coffee five ways

C: Our final course. This was presented on a small cube base with five rods coming out from it. Each held a small cube of coffee jello (for lack of a better comparison). Each of the five had a different topping on them: almond, caramel/salt, cayenne pepper, star anise and fennel, and a fifth that we can’t remember! These were just small little bites of flavor. The caramel/salt one was my favorite!

D: This was the finale for our evening. I never thought of eating gelled coffee before, but here it was before us. This dish epitomized the artistic feel of the platings we enjoyed throughout the evening. A little to our chagrin, this dish ended up a little bit disappointing in terms of flavor and texture. The word Chris used Friday was “anti-climactic” and I couldn’t agree more. If this dish was a few before the end I think it would have gone over better. That being said I think the chocolate dish with the egg would have been a better grand finale.

Still, the dish was interesting and visually was absolutely stunning. How can you compete with a five fingered desert after all?

One of the neat things at this point in the evening was tables around us had come in either before or after us - so nobody was on the exact same time table. It was very hard to not watch the plates being delivered and know that we’d be getting them shortly. On the other hand, it was fun to watch the people behind us in dinner - by the time we were at the 20th course we were saying things like, “Oh yeah! Remember that one, it was good!”

Alinea was an incredible experience with a top notch waitstaff and amazing food that bridged the gap between form and function in an unbelievable fashion. For our money, without the presentations of the food, it might not have been worth it (to me, Dave, at any rate), but with the presentations it was like being at an art exhibit you could feast upon.

If you ever end up with some money lying around…like…oh, I don’t know $625 or so after tip (including 1 bottle of wine, $40, some small pours of wine and coffe that was another $60 or so), make your reservation to check out Chef Grant and Alinea. But be sure to do it a couple of months in advance, as it took us almost 2 months to get in.

I apologize for the photo quality again, and for the lackadaisical description of some things as a result of my poor note-taking skills, but I hope you enjoyed hearing about our experience at Alinea, one of the U.S.’s top restaurants for years to come.

2007 was much better - he got 2nd place. This past year was spent perfecting his chili - doing things like using Penzey’s spices rather than the ones from the Jewel (and they really made a difference!).

Dave’s recipe for chili is pretty easy: equal parts of onions, beans, diced tomatoes, and ground beef. He also throws in some peppers and vanilla extract. Shhh. That’s his secret ingredient. But he shared it with everyone AT the chili cookoff, so I figured it was ok to tell the whole internet.

I really thought he had a chance this year. His was the best, of course. Besides his, I only thought there were two that were even ok, one of them being the guy who usually wins 1st place. The other one had BACON in her chili.

Unfortunately, Dave won 3rd place.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that he placed, but we were hoping for 1st. The guy who usually wins 1st won 2nd, and a team came out of nowhere to win 1st.

Now, the totally cute part of the cookoff: the bowls! Every year, each contestant is given a bowl for competing in the chili cookoff.

We’ll start with 2006:

This is from 2007:

This is 2008’s bowl:

Of course we’ll be entering again next year. We’ll be sure to let everyone know about it and expect to see you there!

So as was perusing the latest issue of Food and Wine I came across a dish that I thought sounded pretty fantastic. The ironic part? It was an ad. But the recipe was interesting, so I gave it a shot. Here’s some of how we did it, and I’ll walk you through some of the things that we did a little different…and what I’d do differently next time.

Lets start with the ingredients, you’ll need (the way we made it):
1 to 2 cups of orange juice
olive oil
2 teaspoons of dried Thyme
Salmon filets (this recipe should take care of 6 to 8 6oz filets)
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon Smoke Spanish Paprika
1 teaspoon Cinnamon (I prefer freshly grated/ground)
1 teaspoon of Orange zest, grated
1/2 teaspoon of salt

This starts off pretty easy, mix up the orange juice, a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and the thyme. Then put the salmon in a glass dish and pour this marinade over the top. Cover it and toss it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Then, you’re going to pre-heat the oven to 400 and mix the rest of the ingredients together (minus the salmon, just relax, that part is coming). Once you’ve got all the this well and integrated put the salmon on your pan. When we use foil on a baking sheet, especially with the oil and orange juice we don’t need to grease it. But if you’re worried about it sticking…go for it. Mmmm, doesn’t this look tasty! Its not even cooked yet!

Then you’re going to take the rub and spread it evenly on the top side of your salmon. If you’re a doofus like me you’ll spread the rub on too thick. In retrospect I shouldn’t have put as much of the rub on here….not like I was smoking ribs or something….but thats for another post. Spread it evenly and you’re almost on the home stretch.

You’ll let it sit in the oven for 10 or 15 minutes, until it flakes with a fork. While its in the oven you could be finishing up some rice (as we had) and you could also be making some yummy greens to go along with it. For us, we put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large saute pan and a small pat of butter and heated the pan. Once it got nice and hot, we tossed in some garlic and sauted it for just a minute or two, then put in a large bunch of spinach. We kept moving the spinach around and stirring it until it was wilted, which happened about the same time that the salmon came out of the oven looking like this.

Personally I really really liked the taste of this dish and it was super easy to prepare and took less than an hour from start to finish including the marinading. Chris…not so much a fan. Again, I think this might be because I put TOO much rub on the salmon and the rub got kind of sticky instead of crisping up / caramelizing the way I was expecting. But definitely something I’ll be making again (if only a single serving.)

Yeah, thats them one up close and personal on the right. Now, like I said, I like mine nice and spicy, Chris prefers hers with an over the counter sauce, so she goes with some Sweet Baby Ray’s Buffalo Sauce, which is actually pretty decent…but not what I was looking for. So I decided to try my own sauce.

Here’s the basic recipe (measurements are approximate…I kind of eyeball most of it.)

1/4 c. Louisiana Hot Sauce
1/4 c. Siracha Hot Sauce (aka Crazy Chicken)
1 stick unsalted butter
2 teaspoons liquid smoke
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons Chipotle Pepper Flakes (can be omitted)
1 tablespoon ketchup
dash of pepper

Take the butter and melt in a pan with the 2 hot sauces and bring just to a boil and mix in the remaining ingredients. Simmer for a couple of minutes then remove from heat and let cool for 1/2 hour. You don’t really have to let it cool…but it will thicken and stick to the chicken better that way..in my opinion…plus you won’t burn your hands when you are tossing it with the chicken.

That recipe makes enough sauce for 12-18 wing pieces…depending on how well coated you make it.

Next, you are going to need to prep your wings. We normally buy our wings whole, that means splitting the wings. Once you’ve got your split wings put them in a glass bowl and pour between 1/4 to 1/2 of the sauce over the top. Then use your hands to toss the wings in the sauce. You could use tongs, however, I find that I get better coverage when using hands.

After they are coated its time to send them to the pan…since we bake our wings. Preheat your over to 400 and get out a cookie sheet and a sturdy cooling rack. You’re going to put the rack on top of the cookie sheet and arrange them about an inch apart. You might want to oil the cooling rack to make removing the wings easier.

Toss them in the over for about 20 minutes or so, until you can nick one of the “legs” to the bone and can see the chicken is fully cooked. Once they are out of the oven put the wings in a clean glass bowl and poor in the remaining sauce and toss. If serving on one plate feel free to pour the remaining sauce over the top. Then, garnish with celery and blue cheese dressing.

I realize that you don’t end up with that BRIGHT red color that a lot of people associate with wings in this recipe, but I think you’ll find it tasty. It blends a good amount of lip tingling heat, just the right amount in my opinion to just about bring a little sweat to your brow, but also a nice compliment of sweetness from the honey. The honey also helps then the sauce up a little bit, as it can tend to be a little then, especially if you use it before its had a chance to cool down.

On thing you might want to try, if you make this sauce is adding another 2 teaspoons of sugar to it to add just a little bit more sweet to the party. Much more and I think it would be too sweet, but you never know. Best part about cooking is the experimenting.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading, and I hope that if you try this recipe you’ll let me know what you thought of it. As always, we appreciate feedback at PeaceLoveFood, so if you’ve got some thoughts for us, post away.

I’ll leave you with a shot of the final plate.

St. Mike’s Eleventh Annual Chili Cookoff

Date: Saturday, January 26, 2007

Place: John Barleycorn, 3524 N. Clark St - Upstairs

Cost: $5 if on the list by Thursday, January 24 ($10 after that)
Pay at the door. Please BRING EXACT CHANGE
All you can eat. Chili goes fast. Cash bar.
Get on the list (773) 973 - 9703 or jhouli1@luc.edu

To enter a chili:
No entry fee.
Notify John Houlihan ((773) 973 - 9703) no later than Thursday,
January 24.
Be present with your chili at John Barleycorn by 6 PM
Provide 1 gallon of chili, enough for people to sample.
(If you bring 2.5 gallons, I’ll subsidize your chili with $15.)
Voting method: Everyone votes and chooses first, second, and
third best chilis.
Categories: Vegetarian and Meat
Prizes: Fame and small tangible awards to winning chilies.

All proceeds benefit St. Mike’s in Old Town

We’ll re-start the blogging with nature’s most perfect food: Bacon

Growing up, my parents always cooked bacon in the microwave, a few pieces at a time. They did this because us kids were picky eaters - my sister liked hers very soft and just barley warned, while I liked mine very crisp and just this side of burned. It was easier to cook them 2-3 slices at a time to the perfect doneness for each of us. My mom was always sure to cover the bacon in a paper towel so that the grease didn’t get all over the microwave.

Not really having cooked bacon for a while, David and I decided that we’d be having BLTs for dinner - but how to cook so much bacon? We decided to try it on the stove, in a nice deep and wide pan. That worked just ok - the first batch stuck to the pan a bit, and grease got all over. We bought a splatter-guard to use to cover the pan, but it didn’t work as well as we thought it would.

This past week, we again wanted to cook bacon. David looked at me and said, “Why don’t we cook it in the oven?” Ya know, I don’t know why we never tried this before! We laid the bacon out on a cooking rack with a cookie sheet underneath it to catch the dripping. This worked perfectly! This is how we’ll be making all of our bacon in the future!

In addition, one of David’s gifts this year was a cookbook that I think we’re both dying to try out: Bacon Cookbook

What does this mean for peacelovefood? Well, it means that we are going to get to do some fantastic grilling that I’ll try my best to chronicle here, as well as tips for how to get the most from your grill….I’ve even got a couple of Cooks Illustrated books to help along the way. In general it should be both fun and educational, tonight we made T-bone’s, baked potatoes and grilled zucchini, which Chris declared her new favorite food…unfortunately no pictures were taken, and I wouldn’t try to describe the fantasticness of it all without pictures, hell, its a shame I can’t give you the smells and tastes.

So yes, PeaceLoveFood is going to see a fantastic resurrection. Stay tuned for more.

Red Lentil Burgers with Aioli

Aioli:
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced

Burgers:
2 cups water
3/4 cup dried red lentils
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
Cooking spray
1 cup diced onion
1/2 cup finely diced carrot
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cups chopped mushrooms
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons Madeira (optional)
1/3 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 large egg whites
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Remaining ingredients:
6 (1-1/2-ounce) hamburger buns
Arugula or curly lettuce leaves
6 (1/4-inch-thick) slices tomato
6 (1/8-inch-thick) slices onion

To prepare aioli, combine first 3 ingredients; cover and refrigerate.

To prepare burgers, combine water, lentils, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 20 minutes. Drain; set aside.

Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrot, and 3 garlic cloves; saute for 3 minutes. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, mushrooms, marjoram, and pepper; cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add wine; cook 1 minute or until liquid almost evaporates. Place onion mixture in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Add the lentils, breadcrumbs, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and egg whites. Cover and chill 30 minutes (to help firm up the mixture).

Divide the lentil mixture into 6 equal portions, shaping each portion into a 1/2-inch-thick patty. Heat the vegetable oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add lentil patties, and cook for 5 minutes on each side.

Line the bottom half of each hamburger bun with an arugula or lettuce leaf, and top each bun half with a burger, 2 teaspoons aioli, 1 tomato slice, 1 onion slice, and the top half of the bun.

YIELD: 6 servings

NUTRITIONAL INFO
calories 324; carbohydrates 48.3 g; cholesterol 3 mg; fat 8.1 g; sodium 688 mg; protein 13.9 g; calcium 109 mg; iron 4.6 mg; fiber 5.8 g

Source: Cooking Light- 09/01/00

The process to make this was not very difficult, just time consuming. If I had thought about it, I would have put them together the night before to give them time to firm up in the fridge over night.

After simmering the lentils, the directions say to drain them - but mine were so much of a mush that there was no way to do that. It may have thrown off the consistency of the burgers. Our burgers were able to be put together into patties, but as we were cooking them they would not stay together as burgers - they kept falling apart. I might up the amount of breadcrumbs in the recipe to balance out the not draining of the lentils.

We made the first batch to eat, and still had some leftovers. The second half was put back into the fridge while we ate. That batch firmed up a bit more, but as we were eating them they squashed their way out the bun. It was very inconvenient, but also very tasty!