Pork Tenderloin, Polenta, Kale Chips

Although I tend to grill year round, Memorial Day still feels like the beginning of grilling season. I happened to see some good looking pork tenderloins at the store, so I picked them up. I also decided rather than simply making grilled pork and a few sides, that I would make a full composed dish. Bit by bit, it started to come together. Continuing through the store, I saw some smoked cheddar, which would go great with the smokiness of the pork so I fit it into the dish in the form of smoked cheddar polenta. I also enjoy making Chinese char siu with pork tenderloin, so I thought to marinate it in the char siu-style, but I didn't baste it to keep it from having an overwhelming char siu flavor.

To go with the smokey polenta and sweet-ish pork, I thought some dark greens would add a nice bitter contrast. I made some kale chips by very lightly oiling kale leaves that had been torn from the fibrous stalk. Simply seasoned with kosher salt, they went into a 350 degree oven for about 12-15 minutes. They are finished when they are crisp and beginning to turn in color slightly. The kale chips remind me of the crispy bits of roasted broccoli. I also found some smokey braised collard greens at Real Kitchen, which we recently found makes tasty sides. While I can't see myself getting an entire meal there, I think they have great sides that can add another flavor note to a dish without any work.

After about a 10 hour marinade, the pork tenderloins were patted dry and thrown onto the grill. I grilled these over high direct heat to sear the meat, and finished them over lower indirect heat. Grilling over hickory wood chips gave the pork a nice, smoky aroma.

Thanks to the new FDA regulations that just passed, pork can now be cooked to the same levels of doneness as beef. Now I don't have to feel guilty for eating pink/red pork!

I made a simple batch of polenta by stirring coarse polenta into chicken stock. When the polenta has cooked for about 20-25 minutes and is the correct consistency, I added some grated smoked cheddar as well aged gouda. I also made a quick sauce by reducing homemade beef stock with a touch of the char siu marinade. The beef stock was full of gelatin, which aided in creating a silky sauce.

The final plated dish consisted of the smoked cheddar polenta, a bed of collard greens, sliced pork tenderloin, kale chips, and the char siu-stock reduction. The flavors worked well together, with the bitter greens providing a counterpoint to the smoky polenta and sweet pork. The kale chips were delicious with the dish, but I would leave them on the side next time to ensure they stay crispy.

The Butcher Shoppe @ Hobe Meats (Phoenix, AZ)

Groupon for The Butcher Shoppe at Hobe Meats.  $25 for $50 of steaks.  And the Groupon is only good for USDA Prime steak?  Sold.  Sign me up.

We ventured down this afternoon to cash in our Groupon deal.  To reach our $50, we chose two ribeyes (~18-20 oz each) and one filet (~10 oz).  And I couldn't help myself (especially with this being Memorial Day weekend) so we bought some freshly ground beef and a few jalapeño cheddar brats.  I went to the counter expecting to spend a small fortune, but all that food came out to (including the $25 spent on the Groupon deal) only $41!  While we were there, we noticed that Hobe Meats also was serving their Saturday Afternoon BBQ special.  So we grabbed a quick bite as well, ordering the Tri-tip sandwich (topped with provolone cheese on a sesame bun), potato salad, and a Coke for only $5.  This was certainly a worthwhile trip.

The steaks, originally intended for Memorial Day grilling, couldn't wait.  So they were coated with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper (and a few other seasonings) and thrown on the grill.

To accompany the steaks, we made two types of mashed potatoes (wasabi and cheddar) and asparagus with butter and Hawaiian sea salt.

These were certainly USDA prime steaks.  Both the ribeye and the filet had a pronounced buttery and meaty flavor.  We can't wait to grill the other ribeye and try the other meats from Hobe.  Although it wasn't quite Memorial Day, the long weekend got off to a great start.

Hopleaf (Chicago, IL)

Hopleaf is one of our favorite restaurants in Chicago; we've been going since we first moved to Chicago, but recently we've moved to within walking distance. Lately, with the warmer weather, we've been making it our Friday post-work place to unwind and get some great food and beer.

Located in Andersonville, Hopleaf is a Belgium pub known for a huge selection of beers, and equally impressive food. Any given day, they'll have 40 different beers on draught and countless more bottled selections (they have a 22 page bottled beer menu). 2 of our favorite, easy drinking beers that we have each visit are the Goose Island Green Line and Metropolitan Iron Works Alt. Even better, the Green Line, only available in Chicago and on draught, is the cheapest beer on the menu at $4/pint.

We started the meal by sharing the Herb Salad, which was a mache salad with roasted beets, goat cheese, sunflower seeds, and a laundry list of herbs, all dressed with a lemon-tarragon vinaigrette. The menu lists the herbs as chervil, mint, lovage, parsley, celery leaf, and micro radish greens. It was a refreshing salad, with the herbs (obviously) being the predominant flavor. I would have liked a bit more goat cheese to compete with the herbs.

One of Hopleaf's specialties are the mussels and frites, so to follow up the salad we ordered the mussels in a spicy thai curry. The mussels were perfectly cooked and perhaps the most tender ones I've had. The red curry, filled with sweet potato, jalapeno, lemongrass, and cilantro, was quite spicy and left a warming heat on our palate with each bite. As per any good steamed mussel preparation, crusty bread was provided to soak up the cooking liquid. Served along with the mussels are my favorite fries in the city, made even better with the accompanying garlic aioli. We moved onto a more bitter, hoppier 3 Floyds Pride and Joy to drink with the mussels.

Finally, we each had a CB&J for our main courses. We've had nearly all the sandwiches on the menu, but this is our favorite. This riff on the basic PB&J has cashew butter, fig jam, and raclette cheese on sourdough bread. Its gooey, sweet, nutty, and fantastic. This sandwich also comes with stilton mac and cheese. If you like blue cheese, you'll love this side dish. We had a Goose Island Fleur with the sandwich. You'll also notice we got our second and third portion of fries and aioli. God I love these fries.

We feel spoiled having Hopleaf so close for terrific beers and food. We just need to remember to order less food......

Spasso Pizza & Mozzarella Bar (Phoenix, AZ)

Well that was disappointing...

The second restaurant choice for us during the Spring Arizona Restaurant Week was Spasso Pizza & Mozzarella Bar in Phoenix.  This was another prix fixe menu option, priced at $30/person.  If it wasn't a prix fixe menu, I would have said Spasso was extremely overpriced.  By the way, this isn't exactly fun to write so I won't spend much time on it. 

First Course: Shrimp Calabrese (SALTY!) & Fried Calamari (decent)

Second Course: Dover Sole (the sauce was the "highlight", not the fish) & Barrcone (more like pork schnitzel than center cut pork loin)

Dessert Course: Tiramisu (whoops, they didn't have any)....so Chocolate Mousse (Chocolate cool whip) & Creme Brulee (actually not too bad)

Wine: The best thing I can say about it is that it looked like wine.

And the worst part of it was that we were there for close to two hours because of the slow service.  And this wasn't a two-hour dinner restaurant. At least the weather was nice on the patio dining area...and the bread they served (after we had to ask for it) was fresh!

Coup des Tartes (Phoenix, AZ)

Every year, the Arizona Restaurant Association hosts Arizona Restaurant Week.  Typically, restaurant week occurs in the fall, but with the popularity of the event, a spring event is now held, with 2011 marking the first spring restaurant week in Arizona.  We love to take advantage of the special discounts offered by the local restaurants, so this time, we decided to try Coup des Tartes, a small bistro-style French BYOB restaurant in Phoenix.

During restaurant week, each establishment will offer a prix-fixe menu for either $30 or $40 per person.  Coup des Tartes presented the following options for their menu:

Knowing us, we wanted to try as much of the menu as possible, so we ordered different items for each of the courses.  We started off with our server bringing us two different types of fresh bread and a butter herb mixture.

And since it was a BYOB, we brought a bottle of the 2007 Antica Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon that we enjoy so much.

First Course: Escargot & Parmesano Salad
The Escargot was much more tender and flavorful than we have had anywhere else (or when we try to prepare it at home).  And the leftover sauce was rich, buttery, and garlicky, which was great for bread dipping.  The Parmesano salad was a classic Caesars salad.  The dressing was pleasant; nothing special but overall a good start to the meal.

Second Course: Filet Mignon & French Style Braised Short Ribs
The beef was an Austrian Grass Fed Filet Mignon, which was topped with caramelized onions and an aged port glaze and served with haricot verts and mashed potatoes.  The beef was cooked perfectly at medium rare and was tender and flavorful.  Carli also commented these were the best haricot verts (French green beens) she had ever had.  The French Style Braised Short Ribs were slow roasted in a classic Mirepoix and served with sauteed spinach and mashed potatoes.  The short ribs were absolutely delicious.  The meat fell apart at the slightest prodding from my fork and had a wonderful rustic French character.  I don't recall the exact flavors of the sauteed spinach but I do recall them being seasoned nicely, teetering to the point of almost being over seasoned but not crossing that line.

Dessert Course: Four Berry Tarte & Creme Brulee
The Four Berry Tarte is composed of a shortbread crust filled with blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and cherries topped with an almond crumble and served warm with vanilla ice cream.  Coup des Tartes creme brulee is a classic creme brulee, with a nice caramelized crust and topped with a fresh strawberry and mint.  We also ordered a latte to go with our desserts.  Both desserts and the latte were a great finish, each living up to the expectations set by the previous courses of our meal.

Carli and I are both big fans of French cooking and Coup des Tartes only enhanced our enjoyment of that style of cuisine.  For us, Arizona Restaurant Week got off to a great start and we look forward to trying another restaurant before the event ends.

http://www.nicetartes.com

Alinea - Part 2 (Chicago, IL)

(Continuing on from PART 1, CAPS are links)

Hot Potato | Cold Potato, Black Truffle, Butter

Starting back up, we move to the 10th course, and one of the Achatz's signature dishes. Along with so many other courses, this has another specially designed service piece. In the paraffin wax bowl was a cold truffle and potato soup. A pin is pierced through the wax, holding a hot potato sphere, chive, a small cube of butter and parmesan, all topped with a slice of black truffle. You pull the pin out of the bowl to drop all the contents into the soup, and quickly drink it all in one gulp. This dish had a terrific temperature contrast between the cold soup and hot potato, and the truffle provided a powerful earty punch. This dish was one of our favorites, and lived up to its billing. Kristen's previous experience with truffles has been truffle oil, and she was unsure if she liked truffles. She's been converted. There's no picture here, since our waiter stressed the time sensitivity of the dish, not wanting it to turn into "warm potato, cold potato." See HERE for a picture of the dish (again, deferring to Ronnie_Surburban's pictures).

Short Rib | Olive, Red Wine, Blackberry

Earlier in the meal, two "flag" CENTERPIECES had been placed on our table. Fancy decorations. The waiter brought out a small pot, filled with red wine braised short ribs. A two layer SERVICEWARE was brought, with the top containing the garnish for the dish. From top left, there was smoked sea salt, blackberry, charred onion, black garlic, white asparagus, nicoise olive, dehydrated cherry, tomato seed vinaigrette, salsify, and a tobacco gel. Underneath the garnishes were a few METAL PIECES that we were instructed to assemble. These parts assemble a CHAIR-like structure. The waiter then used the "flags", which turned out to be tomato and black garlic PASTA, which would be used to wrap the short ribs and garnishes into a taco/burrito. This was absolutely delicious, and exhibited a bit of playfulness, and keeping the dinner from being overly formal.

Hamachi | West Indian Spices, Banana, Ginger

Another dish, another innovative presentation. This was a piece of hamachi (yellowtail), deepfried along with a ginger pate de fruit and curried banana. A vanilla bean was used as the skewer, providing a hint of taste and aroma. The hamachi was extremely tender, and the banana and ginger melded together to almost form a sauce component to the dish.

Agneau | Sauce Choron, Pomme de Terre Noisette

At this point, after each dish all service ware and utensils were being cleared and replaced after each course. However, crystal wine glasses, antique china and untensils were brought out. This course was a nod to Next Restaurant, Achatz's new restaurant. The restaurant changes every 3 months to serve a cuisine from a different time and place. The current menu at Next is Paris 1906. A complimentary glass of French Burgundy (didn't catch the name) was poured to accompany this classic Escoffier dish. Two layered stacks of buttered toast, medium-rare lamb saddle, artichoke, and asparagus were served with sauce Choron, a tomato hollandaise. There were also small balls of potatoes on the side, which were cooked in browned butter and the meat drippings. They were fantastic. My only complaint is that I enjoy the gaminess of lamb, probably more than most, and thought that this lamb was fairly mild. Kristen, however, tends to like it a bit less gamy, and loved this dish.

Black Truffle | Explosion, Romaine, Parmesan

Along with the hot potato cold potato dish, this is another specialty and mainstay on the menu. A single ravioli is placed on a spoon, topped with truffle puree, romaine, and parmesan. The ravioli is filled with a truffle stock, fortified with butter. Instructed to make sure your mouth is closed, once the ravioli is bitten into, it truly does explode with truffle. I could eat a hundred of these.

Snow | Yuzu

This dish marked the end of the savory dishes, and was a bridge to the desserts. Unfornately, this also marked the beginning of further camera problems. Mimicking a snow cone, a thin layer of YUZU "SNOW" was sprayed onto a freezing metal surface. This melted in the mouth, with a pure yuzu flavor. Very refreshing. Kristen thought she'd be funny, suggesting to me that I should lick the snow off. Fortunately, I saw through her ploy, having already experienced the embarrassment of getting my tongue stuck on a metal fence as a kid. Good thing I wasn't going heavy on the wine tonight......

Sweet Potato | Cedar, Bourbon, Pecan

The smell of burning wood preceeded this dish, which was plated on a plank of smoldering CEDAR PLANK. A mound of sweet potato puree was surrounded by a number of accompaniments: cayenne cotton candy, sperification of cranberry, cinammon, butter, and bourbon gels, apple, maple syrup, and pecans. In was fun taking different combinations of the puree with the garnishes.

Lemongrass | Dragonfruit, Finger Lime, Cucumber

A test tube came out next, which we were instructed to suck the contents out in one gulp. A lime gel capped the close side, while a round of dragonfruit capped the back side. In the middle was a liquid lemongrass distillation, mint, basil, and finger lime sacs.

Bacon | Butterscotch, Apple, Thyme

Nutella | Bread, Banana, Chocolate

Lychee | Jasmine Tea

Pictures blurrier than ever on this 3 dish course. Deyhydrated bacon was covered with a strand of butterscotch and apple was a terrific combination of sweet and salty. The nutella bite was a dry homogeneous cube, but when you begin to chew it, it rehydrates and you can taste each of the elements. The lychee was in the form of a thin plasticy skin. It tasted like concentrated lychee fruit, which came dusted with jasmine tea powder.

Chocolate | Blueberry, Honey, Peanut

To begin this course, our table was cleared, and we were asked to hold our glasses. A silicon mat was rolled out and a number of plates and bowls were put on our table.

Moments later, Chef Achatz himself walked up to our table, plating the dish personally! He began to plate (table?) each of the components, turning the blank silicon mat into art. Among the dessert items were hot chocolate sauce, blueberry puree, chocolate-peanut powder, red wine-pickled blueberries, peanut nougat, honey whipped cream, honey creme brulee, and dehydrated blueberry. Of course, the creme brulee had to be bruleed on the table with a blow torch. Why not? When the plating was nearing completion, a waiter came out with a brick of chocolate mousse that had been frozen solid in liquid nitrogen. This was broken by the chef on the table , and finished with basil leaves. Each combination yielded different flavors. The texture of the frozen mousse was fascinating, as it changed while it melted. Even though we were quite full, we demolished this in record time.

I was planning on taking pictures of the actual plating, but my focus was shot as I was watching in it happen. A video of the dessert presentation (with slightly different components) is available HERE.

Alinea was an amazing meal. The best meal I've ever had. The service was exemplary, and the servers weren't stuffy and overly formal, even joking with us on a number of occasions. We were there a total of 3 hours, eating 21 courses, and it didn't even seem that long. Only one (third of a) course from the entire meal didn't impress me. Its difficult to justify paying prices this high for one dinner. Pondering the meal in the days following, as a first time diner, I think it is worth the splurge. Its not a restaurant that I'll be able to return to for in quite a long time, but there is truly nothing like it. It lives up to all of its rankings and more. Although much attention is placed on the unique flavor combinations and avant garde techniques, above all the food tastes fantastic. When I finally win the lottery, I know where I'm having my celebratory dinner.

Alinea - Part 1 (Chicago, IL)

Alinea. Ranked #1 by Gourmet Magazine in under 2 years of opening. Given 3 Michelin stars in November, and more recently ranked the #6 restaurant in the world and #1 in North America. In terms of Chicago's fine dining, it doesn't get any better than Alinea. And for our second anniversary, we were having dinner there.

Alinea is located in on Halsted St. in Lincoln Park. Chef Grant Achatz serves up progressive, avant garde cuisine, often using molecular gastronomy techniques. There is only one tasting menu option, with two wine pairing options. We opted to simply choose a few wines by the glass. The bubbles on the menu have some significance: the larger the bubble, the larger the course, and the position of the bubble from left to right indicate the move from savory to sweet.

(Sorry in advance, I fully realize that my P&S camera photos are doing absolutely no justice to how beautiful the food is here. My camera doesn't do well with low light and no flash.)

Steelhead Roe | Dijon, Rutabaga, Grapefruit

With only one tasting menu, you are left completely to trust the chef. One concern we had is that with 21 courses, and with such unique flavor combinations, there were bound to be things that we just plain didn't like. And this is how we get eased into the meal? A grapefruit and rutabaga sauce in the bottom of the bowl loaded with the steelhead roe and individual grapefruit sacs (is that what they're called?). Three dijon custards were topped with licorice faux-caviar and razor thin slices of radish. I'm not sure how the flavors all melded so perfectly, since they would seem like discordant, competing flavors. I found myself especially enjoying the textures, popping each of the caviar, grapefruit, and licorice individually. Our concerns with the unique flavor combinations were alleviated after the first course.

Yuba | Shrimp, Miso, Togarashi

This (LINK, courtesy of Ronnie_Surburban from LTH) was one of my favorite courses of the night. Told to eat it like chips and dip, a long piece of yuba tofu skin was fried, and wrapped with shrimp, togarashi, sesame seeds, and pickled onion. It was stuck upright in a miso mayonnaise. The yuba was well fried, as it was greaseless and crisp. The pickled onion lent a bright note to the dish, while the togarashi provided a gentle heat.

(From Right to Left)

Oyster Leaf | Mignonette

Scallop | Hitachino Weizen, Old Bay

Razor Clam | Carrot, Soy, Daikon

These three courses were served together, and played with different types of shellfish. The oyster leaf is an actual leaf with the flavor an oyster. It is dressed with a traditional mignonette and sea salt, and served on the half shell. Pretty cool. The bay scallop was butter poached, topped with an old bay oil and a Hitachino Weizen (Japanese wheat beer) foam. The scallop was buttery, and the foam lent a nice bitterness. Kristen loved this course. The final bite was a razor clam. The menu noted carrot, soy, and daikon, but I'm not sure if there was a change in the final preparation, or if I didn't pick up the carrot and daikon. The waiter said there was Chinese XO sauce, and I also noticed some tapioca pearls for texture. I enjoyed the flavors of this, but the razor clam was slightly overcooked.

Urchin | Green Garlic, Vanilla, Mint

On the fork, sea urchin was encapsuled in a vanilla gel cube , and topped with a natural caviar-shaped seaweed, cilantro, and mint. You eat this bite first, and then drink the green garlic soup that was topped with a butter foam. The initial bite was interesting, first tasting the sea urchin, then following with vanilla, and an herbal finish of the cilantro and mint. This was a trend throughout the meal; a single bite where the flavor continued to change throughout the bite. The soup tasted simply of green garlic and had a buttery finish.

Rabbit | Parfait, Rillette, Consomme

This dish contained three separate courses, which all riffed off rabbit and other similar ingredients, and were all plated within the same service piece. On the top of the spherical dish was a rabbit mousse, which I suspect contained liver. This was topped with fried spaghetti squash, sage, and a butternut squash tuile. Kristen received the same, except with a carrot mousse, since she asked for an offal-free menu. The mousse was rich, but also surprisingly sweet. The toppings make for a nice textural contrast against the mousse.

The top was lifted to remove the first part of the dish, and to reveal the second part. Blood sausage was topped with fried rabbit rillette, black trumpet mushrooms. Dots of squash puree and apple gel surrounded the meats. This was one of the more spectacular courses. The blood sausage was soft, and didn't taste overly iron-like. It had an almost-mole flavor, with notes of cinnamon and clove. The fried rillette was also delicious. Kristen received the same dish, with rabbit boudin blanc replacing the blood sausage.

The final part of the course was in the bottom of the bowl. A hot rock, which had been keeping each of the three courses warm, was sitting in the bowl of consomme along with a cinnamon stick and sage bundle. I found this slightly too salty, and the cinnamon and sage were far too strong for the delicate consomme. This would be the only dish that didn't impress me for the entire meal.

Venison | Cherry, Cocoa Nib, Eucalyptus

The next course course looked to be a simple bowl of aromatic eucalyptus leaves. Our waiter jokingly asked us if we wanted it topped with Ranch or 1000 Island dressing. Upon closer inspection, a pin was sticking out of the bowl of leaves. At the end of the pin was a succulent piece of medium rare venison. Interestingly enough, the spices on the venison reminded me of Chinese BBQ.

Wild Mushrooms | Pine, Sumac, Ramp

The ninth course consisted of morel and oyster mushrooms, pine/sumac powder, onion/mushroom crumble, mini fried onion rings, pickled ramps, and a mushroom sauce. This was a deep, earthy dish, between the pine flavors, mushrooms, and the rich sauce. The pickled ramps were added a nice touch of acidity.

To be continued.........

Maya's Farm CSA (Phoenix, AZ)

Over the past year or so, we've occasionally purchased fruits and vegetables through the Bountiful Baskets co-op (http://www.bountifulbaskets.org).  It was always a great deal and we got lots of good produce from the co-op.  But we've been keeping our eyes out for a locally grown CSA (community supported agriculture) in which to participate.  We came across Maya's Farm through a friend and decided to split the 12 week session.  Our latest pickup from Maya's Farm:

We got the following items from this latest offering: thyme, cilantro, carrots, green onions, beets (regular and golden), leafy greens, farm fresh eggs, garlic, swiss chard, and flowers.  The flowers are just "eh" but I like the variety of veggies (wish there was more!).  Tonight we made some brown sugar carrots and roasted beets with olive oil, thyme, salt, and pepper.  If the vegetables vary greatly from what we have seen so far, I'll share some more.

http://www.mayasfarm.com/