Category: Chicago Culture

Some Holiday Cheer With Prairie Organic Vodka

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We are knee deep in the holiday season. This time of year is all about fabulous cocktails to go with great food. Just as we are concerned about the quality of what we eat, we should  apply that criteria to our our wines and spirits. If you are like me , I love to roam the aisles and see all the exciting new brands in spirits category. Its refreshing to see innovative, creative and organic brands sharing space and competing with the more mainstream brands. Prairie Vodka has caught my eye this holiday season and is a favorite of the actor Jeremy Piven (Chicagoan’s have great taste). I have provided  some cocktails for your guests this holiday.Cheers and  Enjoy ! I shall be back back with some cookie posts and a giveaway or two soon.

Actor -Jeremy Piven-as an advocate for green and sustainable living Piven recently contacted Phillips Distilling Co. about his affection for Prairie and that his Malibu home’s bar is completely stocked with their vodka.

Prairie Organic Vodka is made with great respect for people and communities; the result of a unique partnership between a fifth-generation distilled spirits company and a co-op of over 900 Minnesota farmers who are stakeholders in the brand.Taste:

Prairie Organic Vodka is beautifully smooth. With hints of melon and pear on the nose, creaminess on the palate, and a bright, smooth finish, it rivals most luxurious vodkas in the world

Organic:

Prairie Organic Vodka begins with certified organic #2 yellow corn raised by the farmers who own the distillery. In order to be certified organic by the USDA, the growing process cannot use genetically modified seeds, artificial fertilizers, hormones, weed controllers, or pesticides. It’s a lot more work for the farmers at a much steeper expense. In fact, Prairie’s organic corn costs more than twice as much as conventionally farmed corn but the result is well worth it; a natural and ideal base for making luxury organic vodka.

Kosher:

Prairie Organic Vodka is one of a handful of spirits certified kosher by The Orthodox Union and organic by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) which requires that the entire process, from the field all the way to the shelf, be completely free of synthetic chemicals, pesticides and genetically modified seeds and enzymes.

  • Sustainable Production key points:
    • Corn kernels are removed, dried, then milled and blended with water.
    • The leftover cobs and other biomass are converted to biogas energy for heating the stills.
    • Natural enzymes are added to convert starches to sugar, then natural yeast converts the sugar to carbonic acid and alcohol.
    • Alcohol is removed via column distillation, and leftover distillers grains are returned to farms for re-use as feed

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Recipes:

Red Hawk

  • 2 parts Prairie Organic Vodka
  • 2 parts pomegranate juice
  • A squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Shake over ice and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a fresh mint leaf.

Lady Killer

  • 2 oz        Prairie Organic Vodka
  • .25 oz     Aperol
  • .5 oz       Fresh Grapefruit Juice
  • .75 oz     Fresh Lemon Juice
  • .75 oz     Simple Syrup
  • Dash     Fennel Extract

Shake with ice and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with frozen pomelo tossed in honey & ouzo.

The Prairie Cranberry Ginger Martini

Ingredients

  • 3 oz. Prairie Organic Vodka
  • 2 oz. cranberry ginger puree
  • 1 squeeze fresh lime

Directions

Combine ingredients and ice in a shaker. Shake well, strain into a martini glass, garnish with a few cranberries. Cranberry Ginger Puree: Combine 2 cups frozen cranberries, 2 tbsp fresh ginger; 4 cups water, 1 orange, juiced and zest; 1 cup sugar; 1 pinch of salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes; remove from heat and let cool. Blend until smooth and strain.

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Art Wine Project at Three Peas Art Lounge

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I love to promote my adopted home town Chicago. In fact I feel more an affinity for this city in which I lived in for a decade than my true Hometown , Washington D.C. It was love instantly and Chicago really is my type of town. Chicago leaves you wanting for nothing culturally and food and wine wise. So its with pleasure I want to introduce you to a favored spot of mine. Three Peas Art Lounge. You may remember Three Peas Art Lounge donated their space for Stir It 28. Small and cosy in South Loop, Three Peas mission is to “support artists ‘ in atypical formats”.

Last week Maya and Chrishon invited me to their Press event to launch the Art Wine Project. I love these young ladies as they boldly have combined a gallery and social spot in an innovation setting. Keeping the innovation going they have created the Art Project. Three Peas now has private label wines featuring specially commissioned art work  on their labels byHebru Branltey and Krista Franklin. There are two varietals , a  2010 Cabernet Sauvignon featuring Hebru Brantley’s work and a  2010 Riesling featuring Krista Franklin’s work. I sampled both and they are excellent. When you purchase a case you get a signed print of the artwork.Individual bottles will be available for retail as well. The Art Wine Project installation actually runs from August 7- September 30. So there is still time to see these artists great works.

Here’s a clip about Hebru who tells me he makes a mean Macaroni and Cheese. Anytime you want to stop over to Coco Cooks come on over Hebru!

I will be taking a tiny break for a few weeks. But I may drop in with a post or two if time permits. Thanks for reading.

Girl and The Goat…A Dinner Invitation I Could Not Miss

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Some micro organism I consumed earlier this week has knocked me down for the count. This past weekend I had a jam packed food centric weekend lined up with with PR events, work with the caterer, and an epic dinner invitation from Lori Lynn at Taste With The Eyes for a special dinner for ten at Stephanie Izard’s Girl and The Goat arranged by her adoring brother, Don. I had to cancel my whole weekend , just to be be able to recover, and attend this dinner I wouldn’t have missed for the world. By midday Sunday, after plenty of sleep, bed rest, liquids, and other things I wont mention on a food blog, I was ready , to take Lori Lynn up on her gracious invitation. Mind you, I hadn’t really eaten in about a day and half. Marie from Proud Italian Cook ,kept checking in on me all weekend to see if I would make it. To say we were excited would be an understatement.

If you don’t know who Stephnaie Izard is, than you should. She is the only female winner of Top Chef ,and we in Chicago are damn proud of her. The past few months as I have been thinking about blogging, chefs, cuisine, and the food industry in general, I have been thinking of who’s the real deal and who’s just perpetrating . There is a lot I’m not overly impressed with when I analyze it all.Having been all over, and dined all over. I can say Stephanie is the Real Deal. I confess most of the times I go the hottest new restaurants, I’m left with a feeling of not being impressed and let down after spending my precious time and money. Many overly hyped places and people are really not that original or want to really stretch themselves or their diners. But after having dined at Girl and The Goat,I cant say I have ever dined like that in my life. Stephanie is a wizard in flavors and ingredients. Imagine a perfectly seared chicken with watermelon and olives. Crazy but does it work! Marie and I agreed no one coaxes and manipulates vegetable entrees like Stephanie. I could go vegetarian if I had her recipes. Besides the food, I was wowed by her rustic elegant interiors that made you feel comfortable and at ease. There was a casual laid back, yet clean and efficient ease with the staff. Her stacks of pottery and various jars as serving vessels inspired me to pull out my own for use.

What I admire most about Stephanie is her graciousness. Graciousness and modesty seems to be hard to find in this modern age. Lori Lynn’s brother had Stephanie cook for him at a private event in his house once before.Later that year, he had also bid and won on another local Top Chef contestant to cook for another private dinner at a charity event.That didn’t work out and Stephanie stepped in and offered him a gracious dinner at her new restaurant as compensation. She didn’t have to do it, but she did. I have worked in a few kitchens, and from what I saw Stephanie is a hard working , graceful chef with a pleasant attitude and no airs no matter how sticky things get. That’s a rarity in this business. And my hunch is people feel this and will gravitate to Girl and The Goat. For a Sunday evening all the tables were in use, and there was wait list for at 9pm.We reluctantly gave up our table after 3 hours for the next party. That’s not typical for Sunday nights in a recession.

Our gracious hosts ordered practically the whole menu for us to sample with accompanying wines. I barely made it through the appetizers, as I was still recovering. But we slowed the flow and I managed to sample most of the offerings.I had to go easy on some on the heavier meat dishes as I wasn’t quite up to that yet with my stomach. Here is what we dined on from the menu. I placed a star by my favorites although I found everything was exceptional.

Vegetables

warm marinated olives *

pan fried shishito peppers with parmesan , sesame, and miso *

sauteed green beans with fish sauce vinaigrette and cashews**

shaved kohlrabi with fennel, blueberries, evelon, and toasted almonds *

chickpea fritters with heirloom tomatoes and fresh mozzarella

Fish

grilled baby octopus with guanciale, lemon- pistachio vinaigrette *

seared scallops with braised veal, caponata, and marcona almond butter

steamed clams with pork sausage, fennel.green tomato, and linguine *

seared summer flounder with brandade, tart plums, and sweet onions *

Meat

pork liver mousseline with ham hock jus, apple mustarda, and crumpets *

ham frites with smoked tomato aioloi and smoked swiss

smoked goat pizza with honeycrisp soffrito , black kale, cipollini, and ricottta

skirt steak a la planch with chiogga beets, house pickles, wilted romaine, salted goat milk caramel

wood oven roasted pig face with sunny side egg, tamarind, cilantro, and potato stix

braised beef tongue with masa, beef vinaigrette, and salsa verde

pan roasted chicken with fermented black bean, nicoise olives, celery, watermelon, and mint *

goat belly with lentils

Desserts

sweet corn nougat with plum apricot and candied bacon *

fudgecicle with olive oil gelato and dragons milk *

fried potato dumplings with candied eggplant, figs, and honey yogurt

goat cheese bavaroise with blueberry and brown sugar cake *

Breads

Pretzle bread with apple mustard

courtesy of Proud Italian Cook

61st Farmers Market Demo on Canning

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I was fortunate to get invited back to the 61st Street Farmers Market to do another demo. I’m quite honored as the market attract some pretty heavy hitters in the Chicago culinary world. For this opportunity I decided to talk about canning and preserving the taste of summer . I spoke about two recipes I posted before, Giardiniera and Bread and Butter Pickles. Enjoy the videos. Each is about 10 minutes in length. Certain Someone was kind enough to film. The first frames sound is a little off but the majority of the clip is much better. My favorite part is naturally towards the end and the satisfaction and delight the people had tasting my Giardinirera and Pickles.

Chicago Culinary Weekend Events…Sears Chef Challenge

If you’re in Chicago and looking for some culinary related activity check this out! Also , yours truly will be doing a live demo this Saturday at the 61st St Farmers Market at 10 am.

Here is the information for the Sears Event:

On Saturday, July 31 at 7 p.m. CT, you and your readers are invited to watch the four national semi-finalists in the Sears Chef Challenge compete head-to-head in a LIVE cooking competition at the Kenmore Live Studio to be crowned the king or queen of the kitchen. Free to the public, attendees at this event will enjoy delicious food, interactive activities and exciting recipe demonstrations from each of the competing chefs.

Following a nationwide search and online vote, America has chosen the Sears Chef Challenge semi-finalist chefs that will be competing to raise money for local charities in their hometowns, as well as earn a spot to move on to the Sears Chef Challenge Championship Final on November 6. The four chefs will represent their local cities as they compete live by completing a variety of special culinary challenges during the Semi-Final event. The semi-finalist chefs will then be scored by a panel of expert, culinary judges.

What: Sears Chef Challenge Semi-Final Event Cooking Competition

About The Sears Chef Challenge

The Sears Chef Challenge (www.searschefchallenge.com) is a nationwide contest that aims to find the nation’s next up and coming chef by inviting aspiring chefs to enter for a chance to win a newly-renovated kitchen from Sears and up to $20,000 donated in their name to a charity food bank in their hometown.

Semi-Finalist Chef Contestants:

Chef Mark Maassen — Representing Chicago

Chef Steph Krzywanski — Representing Washington D.C.

Chef Riq Glispy — Representing New York

Chef Palak Patel — Representing Los Angeles

Date: July 31, 2010 at 7 p.m. CST

Cost: Free – Open to Public

Location:

Kenmore Live Studio

678 N Wells St.

Chicago, Illinois