Cooking With Ideas

Peach Chutney

I have written about chutney before here at Cooking with Ideas, but can never locate whether I actually wrote about Peach Chutney previously, which is the most row house of all row house chutneys. The recipe is from a parsi cookbook entitled My Bombay Kitchen written by Niloufer Ichapouria King (complete with the love of Alice Waters). For some general information on the author and book, try the NPR view here. 

So, the recipe is actually for tomato chutney (and we have made that as well), but it can be adjusted to use stone fruit -- aka peaches. For years, we have made it, usually with peaches we purchase in bulk from a colleague who grows them. Since starting the life of Chicago and Geneva, rather than the wiser "be at home in Geneva" route, I have not made chutney. So: this past Labor Day I did. I made 11 jars of the stuff, with seconds I purchased at Red Jacket. I used 8 quarts of peaches -- a mixture of white and yellow; usually I simply use yellow. Also, I guessed that this was enough for two batches of the chutney, so I doubled the other ingredients. I have no idea how many pounds of peaches I had. (Yes, I looked it up. Then I just ignored the information, deciding to go for "its about two batches.") 

Here's the recipe with some comments, and I genuflect in the direction of the cookbook, which has taught me a lot:

Ingredients:

    3 pounds of roughly chopped peaches (I am loose about the quantity, and you can also use plums, tomatoes, whatever. Having said that, a key is blanching the peaches and taking off the skins. A royal pain in the wherever, but definitely a necessity.) 

    1/2 cup of julienned fresh ginger( I tried slicing into rounds once and it does not work as well for either taste or getting into jars) 

    1/2 cup thinly sliced garlic (side note: Upstate NY is a great place to buy local garlic. We used German that we got at the Canandaigua Farmers Market this time as it is quite hot. We also like Music. Do not use a soft neck Italian as it is too mild. I do not believe the recipe which says that 1 large head = a half cup. I think about 2 is a half cup. ) 

    1 1/2 cup cane, malt or cider vinegar ( I used cider this time.)

    2 cups turbinado sugar or 1 cup white and 1 cup light brown (I admit I have, on at least one occasion, used a bit of dark brown sugar as well; this time I used Turbinado. The chutney is darker if you use dark brown sugar.) 

    1/2 to 1 cup raisins (optional but I always use them; usually closer to 1/2 cup)

    1 to 1 1/2 tablespoon cayenne or hot chili (I used a heaping tablespoon this time)

    I small cinnamon stick 

    4 cloves 

    1 1/2 teaspoons salt

    grated peel of one organic orange (optional and I have never used) 

Cooking: Put everything in a big pot. Cook for about 2 hours. Do not boil too much, and do not cook to quickly. Stir regularly. Then let sit the batch over night. Then can, using the water bath method described, for example, here. Try not to make a huge mess. Do use your tools, including the dandy little magnet thingie that allows you to pick hot lids out of boiling water without undue damage to yourself. Thank yourself (and your partner) for the existence of a pot filler above your stove. Do not, as I did, wildly overfill the pot; I think it is basic early sanity to be able to deal with volume changes when you add things that weigh a lot, but I apparently missed that stage of growth. 

Results This chutney is amazing. We were down to one jar and totally panicked, so it is a very good thing that I made it. It lasts for ages. Eat it: with Indian food, and in all sorts of other ways. I have been known to eat a spoonful directly from the jar. Be careful if you decide to try that, depending on how spicy that particular batch is. If you make it, give it only to people you love (and who can stand the heat). 

Bar Louie

I have been walking past this place at Dearborn Station for a few years now. Finally, I walked in, sat down, and tried eating (and drinking) at Bar Louie. And, I have to say, I liked the food and, while the drink was a tad low on alcohol, that was not a bad thing that day, for me. In working on this piece, I did discover it is a franchise kind of place, and I have never been to any one other than the dearborn Station one -- so my review only applies there. 

What did I have? I ordered lettuce wraps with sesame chicken and (once I sent back the shrimp which were erroneously served me) I enjoyed the meal a lot. The chicken was nicely cooked, the rice sticks sauced well, and the accompanying hot sauce right at the cusp of sweet and hot. (I have no idea who if anyone would eat the dijon mustard which also came along for the ride.) The one odd thing was the lettuce leaves, which were romaine and in a few cases way too small to wrap around anything at all. I did, though eat every little bit. 

In addition to some of Chicago's own tap water, I did have a blackberry mojito. There was barely any taste or impact that could be alcohol, but the blackberries themselves were amazing and the balance of mint and lime well done. Given my goal was not to get drunk but to drink something that tasted good, I would say: nice job. 

Other issues: I was on an eating out roll, and in many cases a "sit at the bar and eat out" roll. At Bar Louie, I sat at the bar, which was not full and read.  Several things: (a) the bartenders were all women, and all trying very hard to keep the attention of the guys at the bar. Not my scene and not fun for someone who just wanted to eat (and read) in peace. It was loud enough that my order was misheard (I returned it, got no apology, but the end result -- as noted above -- was dandy); (b) did I say loud? Yes, televisions, and yes, some people, but I am not sure why it was so loud. It just was. Having said that, I was left alone to read, the lighting was good, and the food passed inspection. 

Not a place to drink or talk, but definitely a place for lettuce wraps. 

Burgers in the Windy City

I have been binging -- by which I do not mean overeating, but binge reading and also eating out an undue quantity of the time. In the latter regard, I have been to a burger place twice and wanted to offer a bit of a review here. The place? Burger Bar. The location? 1150 South Michigan Avenue. And yes, this is their second location. (See Chicago Magazine here.) 

Let's begin with the ambience. Burger Bar is kind of a cross between -- you guessed it, a bar and a burger joint. As such it has a lovely wooden bar, not so lovely tables, and televisions above the bar. The latter are not on loud, and are, yes, on sports. It is kind of a noisy place, with echoes that make me suspect that it would be hard to hear folks if you, unlike me, were not reading but actually trying to converse. As a reader, people left me alone, and the service in both cases was dandy. (It was better at the bar, but both were good at advice, kind and speedy. The bar guy was even startled at how quickly my burger arrived.) 

Burgers: I have been kind of off my food, but always need a lot of protein. So, the first visit, I had a blue cheese bacon burger. I got the grass fed burger, and french fries. The burger was good, the fries seemed as though they should be but got cold and soggy very quickly. You can, by the way get a gluten free bun (Hurrah!) and this first burger was a "build your own" and a pretty usual choice for me. My second visit I got one of their "stackable," which is a kind of meat on meat burgers thing. I got the firehouse, which was not too spicy, but featured horizon on top of the burger as well as some cheese. I have to say, this was absolutely swell. Delicious. Sinful. Alongside burger number 2, I got the housemate potato chips. These were amazing -- and much much better than the fries. I wanted more. 

Things to Drink: As a bar, it is very very focused on beer, with both local and others, including draught, bottle and beer. I got beer both visits, and in both cases a stout. I have no idea which one I got, but they were both good, the first coming in a bottle (an oatmeal stout) and the second a draught Irish style stout. I have to confess, the first time I also got a milkshake to take home and have later. It was ok, but not great. And, I have to say this: shots in milkshakes? On offer at Burger Bar, this strikes me as ruining a good thing. 

All in all: Burger Bar is definitely a place to try. And no, I did not check out the bathroom and the anonymous bathroom reviewer was not with me! 

Feta Attraction

Yes, it has been a long time. So, let me begin with murder? I was recently in Greece, where I can attest the food is amazing,  so I immediately was attracted to a book entitled Feta Attraction (with its subtitle A Greek to Me Mystery) by Susannah Hardy. Plus, I totally love feta so it seemed the right thing at the right moment. 

In the end, it was somewhat predictable, but utterly satisfying, with a few minor quibbles. The first quibble is that I wanted feta to play more of a role in the mystery. Title puns are all fun, even when overdone, but they work better when there is relation between the pun in the book that includes the foodie part of the pun. To try to make up for my feta-deprived reading, I did google around some which was kind of hopeless, so I will just share this about the salty wonder that is feta: on Crete, I learned, saganaki is not made with fetabut usually with graviera, and people there think of feta as a word used more often by Americans -- or northern Greeks -- than by islanders. Feta is not the cheese of choice, thus, for all Greeks. Myzithra is a dandy Cretan cheese, for example. And, while I always want to say more feta please, those other cheeses are also swell, including in a dish called dakos. (For a few Cretan recipes, try here even though the dakos calls for feta.)

Second, Susanna Hardy has a blog, which you can access here. My own sense of it is that her tag line there -- dishing up laughs, one body at a time -- is the aim the book itself. Having said that, it is not as funny as I wanted it to be. (How many times can the notion that Greek names have many syllables be noted? I do know that those who share an ethnicity get to make fun of such things, but there are likely alternatives.) 

Third: my partner in crime and I have a running thing about murders and other things that refer to upstate New York. In this case, it is Bonaparte Bay, which I assume is somehow related to the "real" Bonaparte Lake? In any case, there is a bit of upstate-ery history here, which is worth the fun as well. Click here for a bit on that locale, and its nearby town called Diana. And yes, I know that the name Bonaparte is connected to a short guy named Napoleon. 

Quibbles to the side, what else do I have to say? Try this interview with Susannah Hardy (and yes that is a pseudonym) for some insight. My own sense is that while I will not read these for the foodie fun, as that was kind of limited, I might peruse another to drift away an afternoon.