Clarendon Hills Whipped Butter

Butter. I love butter. I suppose that's a given -- most people are at least fond of butter, but I? I write poems about butter, I dream about butter, I find myself constantly thinking about it at inappropriate times and in strange places, like on the El.... I'm stretching. I'm not a butter fiend, by any means, and I don't think I've had a butter-based dream for quite some time, now, but in any case: butter and I go way back. We're pals. Oh, sometimes we get into the occasional squabble, and I swear never to speak to it again, but a few days later? I'm back with my knife and bread, ready to kiss and make up.
Of course, we're not talking about any old kind of butter here. No, if I'm going to smother something in butter, it's got to be goooood butter. Land-O-Lakes is fine and all, if you're having a butter emergency, but my preference? Clarendon Hills Whipped Butter. Call me needlessly fancy if you must, but I love this butter. It comes wrapped in a sheet of parchment paper in an irregularly shaped 8-ounce block, with no other indications of measurement. It's old-fashioned, really, because my whole life I've been accustomed to standard butter: four neat rectangles wrapped in parchment, stamped by the tablespoon, and snugly packed into a bright yellow box. Until Clarendon Hills, I'd never seen anything different. It is nothing like standard butter, and it tastes nothing like it, either.
This butter is made in Wisconsin, and labeled "Wis. Grade AA." Not being an expert on food codes, I did a little sleuthing and found, unsurprisingly, that in Wisconsin, Grade AA butter indicates a superior breed of butter. It possesses the highly pleasing butter flavor required, has only a slight (I taste none, but I'm not a butter expert, by any means) taste of feed and/or culture. For comparison, Grade B butter is described thusly: "It may possess any of the following flavors to a slight degree: malty, musty, neutralizer, scorched, utensil, weed and whey. It may possess any of the following flavors to a definite degree: acid, aged, bitter, coarse, flat, smothered, storage and old cream." Oooo, bitter-acid-storage butter! I love that stuff! I just can't get enough of that scorched old cream taste! Clearly, Grade AA is the "creme de la creme" of butters, at least by Wisconsin's standard.
They sell this stuff at Treasure Island, which is a great "European-style" grocery store in Chicago. There's one right in D's office building, so although it's a bit more expensive than Dominick's (which is just shy of out-of-the way on the walk home) he'll stop there sometimes after work to get us some food -- especially if we need butter. They have a small but thorough produce section and lots of different types of hard-to-find foods (we were able, by the way, to purchase some olivada -- black olive paste -- there, as I originally thought.) Unfortunately, they don't have a functioning website (it's been "under construction" for quite some time) but if you find that you're lacking something strange and generically European in your pantry, they most likely have it there. And they carry Clarendon Hills butter, which makes it worthy of a special trip. Just for the butter. And if you walk there, you might be able to work off the calories that you'd consume after baking some cookies with this rich, creamy, Grade AA butter. By the way: while it's wonderful for baking, it's good in any recipe that calls for butter or margarine. Try it on these thin chocolate chip cookies, then move on to baked dijon chicken (substitute it for the oil) and smashed potatoes. Speaking of potatoes: just throw a hunk of this stuff on top of a baked potato with a salad on the side and you have yourself the tastiest quick meal known to man. I'm serious.

Mitsuwa Marketplace

Forgive me if this post makes no sense: the coffee machine spat out water speckled with grinds this morning instead of the usual normal coffee, so I'm flying without the assistance of caffeine. Unfortunately, we didn't do too much cooking over the weekend. We spent the majority of the day on Saturday in the suburbs, running various errands and having dinner with D's family. I was somehow able to convince D to take me to this wonderful Asian marketplace we'd heard about on Check, Please! which is one of the best local shows on PBS. Each week, the guests on the show visit three Chicago-area restaurants -- each guest picks one restaurant -- and they sit down to discuss the places and their experiences with host Alpana Singh. Alpana is fun to watch on television -- she's quite a personality -- and you know she knows her food, and her wine: she's the youngest person to ever pass the Master Sommelier exam, which is quite a feat.
A few weeks ago, Check, Please! featured Mitsuwa Marketplace, the largest Japanese grocery store in the Midwest. It's actually a chain, with most locations in California (and one, mysteriously, in Jersey) but it was far from a big-box experience. Although it is quite large, and the majority of the building is occupied by the grocery store, there is a sizable food court (which is what our visit was mostly for, aside from picking up some sesame oil and scallions) as well as a travel agency and a bookstore. Aside from the oil and onions, we had a third mission: a bentō box. D picked me up the cutest, greenest bentō in the store, complete with strange slogan: It Is So Wonderful To Be Able to Maintain Your Dreams is scrawled across the top of the box, as well as on the accompanying bag. I was kind of nonplussed by the selection of bentō boxes, but I was able to find the perfect one anyhow. In case you don't know, a bentō box is a Japanese-style take-out container or lunch-box, complete with small compartments for different types of food. It's all about pleasing presentation and compactness, which are two things that I am quite fond of.
The marketplace is overwhelming: since I don't speak Japanese, it was kind of a confusing venture, but we made out perfectly. We had a bit of luck: at the food court, everything is written in Japanese (with English titles that mean very little to me) but all the vendors have display cases with each meal inside, numbered and titled to make it easy to order. I wanted something noodle-based, and although many places had lots of soups that looked heavy on the noodles, I wasn't looking for liquid. I wanted a solid, stir-fried mass of wiggling noodles in sauce. Enter yakisoba!
Yakisoba is a fried-noodle dish made with cabbage, onions, bean sprouts, carrots, ginger, seaweed, and fish flakes. It's not too spicy, but it has a bit of a kick -- at least the version that we ate did. It's also quite healthy, aside from the sodium in the sauce, which is typically made from sosu, a Japanese worcestershire sauce. We split a gigantic plate between us for $3.40, which is a steal, especially since you get to stand there and watch it being prepared, which is extremely fun. They make it on a giant grill, and while we waited, three more people ordered yakisoba, which meant that they just kept adding more noodles and sauce and veggies to the pile. By the end, the entire grill was nearly covered in noodles.
It was fantastic, and we ate the entire plate in no time. I was full, but D wasn't. Good, because we hadn't tried the sushi, which was, according to D, downright fabulous. I personally don't eat raw fish, so I wasn't even able to try a bite of the tuna maki, but for $3.00 D got a large tray-full (twelve pieces total) which he says was delicious. The look on his face while he ate it confirms this fact: that's got to be some great sushi. They also sell sushi-quality fish in the grocery component of the marketplace, which is obviously very good. I considered buying a slab or two, but we weren't done with our errands, and it would have gone wrong by the time we were able to refrigerate it. I'm cool with that, though: just means we'll have to take another trip back!

Yakisoba (Adapted from Mitsuwa Marketplace recipe)
Peel and julienne one large carrot and one half an onion. Remove the core from one half cabbage and cut into long, bite-sized strips. Rinse a cup of bean sprouts and drain well.
Rinse a package of yakisoba noodles and place on a plate. Cover with saran wrap and microwave for one minute -- this keeps the noodles from sticking together when you stir-fry them.
Heat one tablespoon oil in a frying pan -- or, you can cook one slice of bacon, diced, in the pan, which is what they did at the marketplace -- and add the vegetables. Stir-fry the veggies until they begin to wilt. Add the bean sprouts last, however -- you want them to retain some crunchiness. Add the noodles and mix well. Once everything is incorporated, add the sauce. Most noodle packages come with a sauce packet; if not, you can use about 1/4 cup Japanese worcestershire sauce. Coat the noodles and vegetables with the sauce and heat through.
Serve with some grated ginger, seaweed flakes, and fish flakes on top.
Oishii! (Delicious!)

Szchewan Restaurant, 60611 (Restaurant Review)

Well, we're both sick now -- this time with some sort of head cold. We had to cancel our dinner plans for Valentine's day and stuck ourselves on the couch with some Chinese takeout last night in lieu of a fancy dinner at HB: A Hearty Boys Spot. HB is owned and operated by the winners of the first Next Food Network Star challenge, Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh, and it's a cozy little spot with brick walls, candles, and inexpensive delicious meals. We went there last year for Valentine's day and ordered the five-course couples meal and couldn't have been more surprised -- or more pleased -- with the results, which included a whole red snapper, oysters, and savory cupcakes. The cupcake flight was really amazing and I'm still thinking about it over a year later: honey lavender, orange blossom and chocolate chili, perfectly baked and topped with a mountain of frosting. Yumyumyummm.
Unfortunately, we just weren't feeling up to it yesterday, so we got some Chinese food from our favorite place in town, Szchewan Restaurant. They serve Szechuan, Mandarin and Hunan cuisines, and even offer some Shanghainese and Cantonese dishes as well. I can't even tell you how great this restaurant is, although they don't do delivery (you can have the food delivered through a service called DiningIn, but it takes over an hour to arrive and it's cold and expensive.) The crab rangoons are to die for, and the food isn't greasy or drippy or icky -- which is sometimes the case with Chinese restaurants, I'm afraid. I love the decor -- classy but not trendy, with white tablecloths and intimate seating -- and the waiters are always smiling and friendly, although we mostly do takeout.
They also allow you to request white meat only for the chicken dishes, which is huge: very high quality food. I'd recommend asking for only white meat, because it doesn't cost any extra and I just like white meat better. Last night we forgot, though, and our General Tso's chicken was mostly dark: fine when you're eating a saucy chicken, but not so good in a soup. Why do I like white meat better? It's got something to do with the texture, and the nutrition content: dark meat tends to be fattier than white. So in matters of white meat vs. dark meat, I'm in the white meat camp. But I understand the value of a dark meat, particularly when grilling or frying -- it holds up better and is less stringy. Another great thing about darker parts of the chicken? Higher iron content. So... it's a matter of my personal taste, really.
Anyhow, if you're going to eat at Szchewan Restaurant, I can't speak highly enough of the Fried Wontons (also known as Crab Rangoons) which are fried doughy purses filled with cream cheese and crab meat. You get eight of them for only $3.95, and eight are more than enough for two people to share. They're really rich and are probably the best crab rangoons I've ever had. And I love me some rangoons. We started off the meal yesterday with their Sizzling Rice Soup, made with large pieces of fresh snow peas, mushrooms, and chicken floating in chicken broth. It's something that I really like eating when I'm feeling sick because it's so fresh, hot, and light. I also really adore their Crispy Sesame Chicken, which is strips of chicken smothered in a gooey and deliciously sweet sesame sauce and topped with tiny, crunchy noodle like things. Last night, though, we went for the General Tso's chicken, a chef's special that is made with chunks of chicken (like you see in most Chinese food places here) topped in a spicy sauce with red peppers, ginger, and garlic. I'm about to cry just thinking about how tasty it is.
If you're in the Chicago area and need a great place to eat on the Magnificent Mile, don't pass up Szchewan Restaurant. And with Chinese New Year right around the corner, be sure to make a reservation if you're planning on going this coming weekend. Or you can stop by for their extensive lunch buffet on weekdays between the hours of 11:30 AM and 2:00 PM. They also serve Dim Sum on Saturday and Sunday from 11:30 to 3:00 pm. They recommend a reservation for their dim sum, which sounds like a real experience -- not good for a first date, though, they say on their page aptly titled More Information about Dim Sum. The menu is a bit pricey, but when you consider the amount of food they give you? It's just about right.

Szchewan Restaurant
645 N. Michigan Avenue (the entrance is actually on Ontario St.)
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 642- 3900
http://www.szechwanchicago.com/

Mon- Sat 11:30am-10:00pm
Sun 11:30am- 9:30pm

Store Review: Sur La Table

Today, it was grey and dreary outside, and we didn't make it past the doorstep until three pm. After lounging around and having a morning equally dismal to the sky (I spent the time working on another grad school application -- 11 down, three to go! -- and he cleaned up a storm. Pretty boring for a Saturday, if you ask me) we decided that it was high time we own a strainer. And a pastry brush. One that wouldn't burn if we got it hot. And a new oven mitt -- ours had a giant hole in it, from a burner/hot pan incident, and he was forever concerned that I was going to burn myself again through the hole, which was highly possible. Also, we were in need of some metal tongs and some cookie cutters, for the scones. We made away with two fancy cutters: a nice flower shape and one in the shape of a dachshund! I couldn't believe how many crazy cookie cutters this place had. Plenty of dinosaurs, but no simple squares (unless you bought a set, which I do not need.) I even saw a squirrel-shaped cookie cutter. I would love to know what kind of a person purchases and uses a squirrel-shaped cookie cutter, but I'm afraid it's someone a lot like me: I considered buying it.
So we went to Sur La Table, a fancy-pants kitchen utensil store within walking distance of our apartment. Of course we didn't walk, being that the windchill put the temperature at below zero, but we took a bus down Michigan that landed us three blocks from the store.
It's a great store to visit, especially if you're into kitchen gadgetry, although the salespeople tended to be a bit on the fake-helpful side. By that I mean they kept asking us if we needed help. Over and over, the same two people -- now, if I didn't need help ten minutes ago, why would I need help now? As we went to check out, they all disappeared, and we stood there, goods in hand, waiting for one of them to stop bugging the other patrons and deal with us, now that we were ready. Slightly annoying, but... that's what shopping is. People falling over themselves to help you until you actually need their help.
I'm throughly satisfied with everything that we bought, although I regret not getting the ice cream scoop we had debated on: it's perfect for portioning out the scones and for making meatballs. A very versatile tool that I'd love to have, unnecessary as it may be. Here's a picture of me using the new strainer to wash some baby carrots. You can see our new silicone oven mitt in the background, mouth open and ready for something hot to grab onto. I have to get used to it, though, as I'm not really comfortable with having my entire arm exposed to the hot oven. However, the larger silicone mitts are pretty awkward, since they're not as pliable as the standard fabric. One other great thing about this mitt? It's dishwasher-safe, which means that after getting melted chocolate all over it after baking scones? I just have to pop it in the dishwasher and it'll be clean as a whistle. Not so with our old, now discarded, fabric/rubber contraption: it was stinky and couldn't be washed, even in the laundry. So long, lame-mitt!

Adding to the list of things I wish I had purchased but didn't, due to my penny-pinching ways:
1. Another oven mitt. One isn't enough for properly grabbing things.
2. A really really nice kitchen knife. I didn't even bother looking, after seeing the price tags on the wall. But a girl can dream, right?
3. The plastic hot dog basket. He wanted one of these, and I should have gotten it for him! But I didn't, for some reason. He's a hot dog fanatic, and it would be really fun to have a bona fide basket for the house.
4. A garlic press. This, though, I can live without, because I love the smell of garlic on my hands. But it's a good thing to have around.
5. A silicone baking mat, or some silicone muffin cups. I'm really into the whole silicone bakeware thing right now, and I really would like a nice mat to use for prep and for baking.
6. A pickle fork, for him. Also doubles as an olive-picker, or so he says.
7. The ice-cream scoop, or possibly a meatball maker scoop (which they also had). Reasons listed above.

All in all, though, it was a highly successful trip to the store. I recommend Sur La Table for their fantastic selection, knowledgeable staff, and their prices -- some of which are high, I admit, but for most stuff it was very reasonable.

Sur La Table
52-54 East Walton Street
Chicago, IL 60611
312.337.0600
To find another location, click here.

New Scandinavian Cooking: Halibut with Herbs and Rosemary-Lemon Butter

Today, I'm featuring a delightful cooking show that airs on our local PBS station*: New Scandinavian Cooking. The show is produced in Norway and about to begin its fourth season, and rumors are that a new chef will be taking the hot seat: Claus Meyer, a Danish chef -- or gastronomic entrepreneur, as his website boasts. Although his website seems pretty firm on the details, providing stills and even a CV, the official website of the series (scandcook.com) says that Andreas Viestad, the beloved season one and two chef, will be back for a fourth season.
I'm inclined to believe Chef Meyer's website, mostly because the Scandcook website is kind of crazy. For example: click on the link to read Andreas's bio and you're taken to Tina Nordström's bio page. She's the host of the third season, and I dare say I like her even more than Andreas. I caught the show with her as the host, and when I stumbled upon a repeat of season two, I got pretty flustered. "Where's Tina? Her theme song is so much better!" (the theme songs for this show totally freaking rock, by the way). But I got used to Andreas and his wacky ways, and now I'm sad that neither of them will be back for a new season. But I'm excited for Danish food, which will be a new type of cooking for the series. Andreas specializes in Norwegian food; Tina, in Swedish.
The best thing about this show has to be the way that the food is made. Unless there are some serious weather conditions -- and I mean serious -- the food is prepared outdoors on a sort of fold out kitchen table/stove combination. You even get to watch the chef put together this contraption in fast motion, which is a trip. Watching it real-time would be a drag, but with the cool music and tah-dah pose at the end of the setup, it's one of the highlights of the show. When I mentioned weather conditions, I was understating dramatically. This guy makes ice cream on a glacier in one episode. He's not even wearing gloves, people. He churns his own butter, milks cows, rides horses, stays up all night and day making bread. Tina catches fish and guts them right on the boat (throwing the remains out to "his old friends -- a tasty treat!")

Halibut with Herbs and Rosemary-Lemon Butter
One of my favorite episodes of all time is Andreas's Royal White Halibut, which happens to be the first episode of the first season. They really knew how to launch this show, I tell you, because this episode has to be one of the more sensational ones (besides the glacier making ice cream escapade, which takes place later in the same season). One of the best things about the show in general is that they visit a particular area, cook some food local to that area, and offer up some interesting (I believe they call it "rich") history of the place. This episode is in Alta, which is far, far north. It's impossible to grow nearly anything in this climate, what with the rocky soil and the freezing temperatures, but the halibut is plentiful. We visit some local fishermen, who offer to let us trek onto their boat for an expedition out to sea. The theory is to catch some halibut and then cook it after returning to land; Andreas one-ups them by making them an appetizer on the boat, ten minutes after the fish has been caught. Wow, dude. Way to feed those hungry sailors! (Tina is fond of finding "hungry sailors" and feeding them her creations, by the way, and she says so in several episodes).
They soon return to land, 20-pound halibut in tow. He starts by cleaning the fish (thanks for the instructions, because next time I have a 20-pound fresh halibut in my kitchen, I'll know exactly what to do) and rubbing the skin on both sides with sea salt. He then sets to rubbing it with massive quantities of rosemary, chopped parsley, thyme, chopped fresh bay leaves (although he mentions that dry will suffice), and marigold.
Andreas sets to digging a pit in the sand on the beach; I'm sitting on my couch thinking: the hell? What's going on here? He's going to cook the fish in the hole. Sand and all. He starts by laying down some seaweed, then, some sticks and brush. He lights those on fire and covers them with a few large slabs of rock. More seaweed; then, the fish. A fish and seaweed sandwich, with rocks and sand for garnish! Tasty!
No, really, he's actually cooking the fish in the sand-pit. I'm quite impressed. Also worried about the texture of the sand, but he seems to think it will be fine. He begins to stuff the fish with more ridiculous amounts of the herbs above, and sets it on the seaweed bed. More seaweed on top; then, after it's covered, he pours a bottle of dry white wine (saving a glass for himself, which he drinks straight from the bottle immediately) over the entire thing. Then, a layer of sand is shoveled on top of the whole mess. Steam is pouring out from all directions. How will he know when the fish is ready to eat? Why, of course! A high-tech thermometer was placed carefully in said fish before cooking and the digital output rests on the mound of steaming sand. Brilliant! That's how they did it in the old days.
Two hours later, and the fish is ready to eat. Andreas and some of his fishing buddies dig their old friend out from his steaming grave and place him on a giant platter. It takes two men to carry it to the carving table and feeds a large crowd of twenty or so people mingling about. I wonder, did they see the steaming sand pit and say: look! Someone must be cooking halibut! More likely they were invited to the shoot, but still, it's funny to imagine them all happening upon the fish during a chilly stroll on the beach.

Want to make this at home? Substitute the 20-pound halibut for four 1/3 pound halibut steaks. Rub them with about 2 teaspoons sea salt, then create a bed of herbs in the frying pan out of 1 cup of parsley, 1 cup total rosemary, marigold, thyme, and 4 bay leaves. Use about half of the total amount on the bottom, the rest should cover the fish as it cooks.
Place the fish on the bed of herbs and cover with the remaining spices. Pour about 3/4 cup dry white wine ("Use wine that you would actually drink," Andreas recommends; otherwise, your fish won't taste any good) over the top and cover the dish. Bake in a 400º oven for about 15 to 20 minutes, until the fish is opaque throughout. We just made it directly on the stove, which turned out splendidly and took less time than baking. Brush off the herbs to serve.
You can make a rosemary butter sauce to serve with the fish, which I highly recommend. Reserve and cook down the liquid from the finished fish, until you have about 1/4 cup of the juices left. Put this to the side.
Heat 1 tablespoon butter ("until it bubbles enthusiastically"). Add 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary, 1 teaspoon chopped thyme, and 1 bay leaf. Cook for about two minutes, then add 7 more tablespoons of butter. After it melts, drop in 1 teaspoon chopped tarragon, 2 teaspoons chopped parsley, and 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest. Cook for about five more minutes over medium heat. Be careful not to let the sauce boil; otherwise, the butter will burn. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice, the 1/4 cup reduced marinade from the fish, and season with salt and pepper. Strain sauce and discard any chunks of herb that remain.
Pour the sauce over the halibut (tip: keep the fish warm by covering it while you make the sauce) and it is ready to eat.
Jättegott! (Delicious!)
If you ever get the chance to watch this show, I highly recommend it. It's really a treat to watch experienced chefs brave the outdoors and conquer food in its natural setting. It is much more informative, exciting, and delightful than anything you'll find on the Food Network Channel. Not to knock the Food Network, which has its place, but this program far surpasses most other cooking shows on-air today.

*The website says that the show is available to 347 public television stations in the US. It's also available on cable television (no stations listed) and DVDs can be purchased on the official website.