Sweet Potato and Avocado Yaki Onigiri

SWEET POTATO & AVOCADO 
YAKI ONIGIRI

Garrett and I are getting up early tomorrow to drive out to Flint, MI for Christmas, so we're going to need some good car trip snacks for the five-hour haul.  Perhaps Japanese finger foods don't immediately come to mind on this occasion (road trips or Christmas), but based on my experience they should.

Onigiri are the perfect to-go food: balls of sticky rice with a tasty filling that comes with a built in seaweed handle.  They are a staple at Japanese convenient stores and food kiosks especially for that reason.  I trained across Japan a few years ago, and always embarked with onigiri of a mysterious flavor.  Since I don't read Japanese, I experienced a wide range of fillings - from just a little teriyaki, to red bean paste, smoked salmon, and once in a while, some offensive fermented root vegetable.  But really, the star of the show with onigiri is the slightly sweet and slightly vingary sticky rice.  Most onigiri from an average market wouldn't be grilled, but yaki ("grilled") onigiri has the extra pleasure of crunchy bite leading to the warm, sticky filling.

Besides road trips or picnics, onigiri makes a great party finger food.  If you've ever been tempted to make sushi but found all the chopping and rolling a hassle, onigiri make an excellent alternative.  The onigiri pictured here would be a little big as party hors d'ouevre, but could be scaled down to your liking.  Try out different fillings (like variations of your favorite sushi rolls) for your New Year's Eve party.

Vegan and Gluten Free Sweet Potato Pie

I went to a little dinner gathering with some of my favorite friends/colleagues last weekend, and it was another opportunity to test some twists on classic comfort foods for fall.  Our host is a new momma that has gone dairy-free because the little one was having bad reactions to that component of her diet, so this is challenging for desserts.  That being said, I just decided to go all out and combine a few clever vegan and gluten free pie components.  I would happily substitute a standard pie crust for this nut crust any day.

There were some logistical challenges to removing both gluten from the crust and dairy/eggs from the custard filling of a sweet potato pie.  While neither challenge compromised flavor at all, it does require some patience to remove the pies from the baking pan (the crust really needs to cool and set to be durable, and the filling will remain soft after baking).  Those challenges could certainly be eliminated by making one whole pie in a standard pie dish, but the individual portions made in a cupcake pan were pretty adorable.

If you are not bound to keeping the pies vegan, they were also very tasty with a homemade marshmallow topping browned under the broiler (great recipe that I halved found here; and by the way, baking soda will work to substitute for cream of tartar).  

I very rarely make a recipe twice, just because I'm always more excited to try something new, but in this case my family will definitely be getting some sweet potato pies for Thanksgivvukah.  They were that good.

Hasselback Sweet Potatoes with Apple Chutney

It seems that this weekend everyone in the food blogosphere had the same idea: hasselback sweet potatoes.  You know this is true when it comes up in a Buzzfeed post.   Well I can't blame everyone, seeing that fall is sort of upon us.  This recipe is fall flavor bomb with cranberries, walnuts, apples, maple syrup, and cinnamon.  

My motivation, which you'll trust was initially conjured up in my own mind, was in search of something to celebrate Rosh Hashanah.  In other words, a ridiculously sweet dish that features apples and honey, but still manages to use onions and garlic as base flavors.  Seeing that I'm not a big fan of tzimmis, the traditional vegetable dish that satisfies these requirements, I went looking for an alternative.  I wound up combining two ideas - one for an apple chutney and the other for hasselback sweet potatoes (thanks to Tea & Cake and My Recession Kitchen for the help).  I tried to keep it as healthy as possible, using no refined sugars and just a touch of butter (but you could eliminate that completely if you wanted to use oil and keep it vegan).  Of course, you could just make the apple chutney recipe below and use it for a slew of other recipes besides these sweet potatoes. 

Whether you're celebrating Rosh Hashanah this week or not, I hope the change of season brings you "sweet new year."  These hasselbacks should help.

Sweet Potato Ravioli

One of the best things about travel is how it changes your perspective on home.  I've learned through travel how lucky Chicagoans are to live in a relatively affordable city with world-class culinary options.  While getting a phenomenal meal in Paris will really cost you, Chicago offers a truly fine dining experience at pretty much every popular corner in the city.  In fact, after finishing an impressive meal at Les Créations de Narisawa, Tokyo's contribution to one of the top 30 restaurants in the world, I couldn't help but think that I could have had a meal of that caliber right here in Wicker Park (and for a lot less).

Les Créations de Narisawa, Tokyo, Summer 2010

Yes, I think every city in the world has those delicious dives and street vendors that make them all equally travel-worthy, but when it comes to fine dining I've never been to a city like Chicago.  A few years back, Garrett and I went on a stint of visiting all these newer fine dining establishments (Blackbird being my favorite), because we figured one's twenties were really the best time to look back on and say "remember when we ate there?"  What we've realized since is that you hardly need a reservation weeks in advance at these places to enjoy an amazing meal.  Usually just walking in and asking for a seat at the bar will give you access to a full menu with better service since a bartender or server is always around to chat with you.  This last Saturday was an excellent case-in-point.

I can't rave enough about Storefront Company, a year-old restaurant that's right down the street from my apartment.  Saturday was our fourth visit.  We always stopped in for the drinks - which are designed with as much care and attention to flavor pairings as the menu - and to watch the pastry chefs work with furrowed brows in their open laboratory of delicious.  That always convinced us to order a dessert and call it a night.  So when we went to order some small plates, dessert, and drinks on Saturday we were left in love with the food and the staff.

The open kitchen at Storefront Company, 3/23/13

Go to Storefront Company and sit at the bar for some awesome dinner theater as you watch the kitchen execute artfully designed plates.  Order anything, because its going to be their awesome interpretation of whatever you expected in your head.  Best of all, talk to them and ask them what they're doing with all their little tweezers.  On our first visit we couldn't help but pull aside the pastry chef and say, "Excuse me, but we're just wondering what you're doing."   She's so charming, she laughed and said, "I don't know!"  One gets a sense that the owners appreciate the hours of experimentation that goes in to finding the best flavors for their dishes.  Not only did we get to speak to her again about an incredible chocolate dessert she crafted (below, right), but in the course of the evening we had meaningful banter with the bartender, a sous chef, and the executive chef about what they were creating and their process of design, preparation, and execution.

In the course of the meal I turned to Garrett and said things like: "Do they treat everyone this well?" and "I think this is as good as Blackbird" (particularly in reference to the rabbit/ravioli dish).  Garrett's favorite was the beet-cured salmon on brioche cups filled with fennel jam (above, center).

So, I'd like to thank the staff at Storefront Company for treating us so well - and for the drink on the house because it didn't come perfectly timed with dessert, and that extra plate of salted caramels and macarons post dessert (slipped to us by the pastry chef with a wink and "shhh").  And, of course, thanks for inspiring me to dust off the old pasta maker for this post.  About a foot in front of us the chef rolled out fresh pasta and filled it to make ravioli in a matter of minutes, all the while carrying on hospitable conversation about their days-long process to make their delicious beet-cured salmon.  It was impressive.

This recipe is a bit more involved than a typical post, but definitely worth it if you have the time or the occasion.

Lentil Turkey Burgers

LENTIL TURKEY BURGERS 
W/ CARAMELIZED ONIONS 
& BAKED SWEET POTATO FRIES

 
Burgers are so versatile and low-maintenance that its worth experimenting with new ingredients.  Get as crazy as you want.*

While I wouldn't describe this burger as crazy at all, it certainly combines multiple "alternative" burger genres - turkey, lentil, and veggie all rolled into one.  The recipe follows a pretty simple burger formula I rely on: a mix of a low-fat animal protein with a vegetarian protein and as many finely diced vegetables as possible.  That means any bean, legume, or heartier vegetable will work great.  I've personally developed a physical aversion to quinoa after an overdose during its peak of popularity in late 2011, but if you're still a healthy user or you have it out for Bolivian farmers, then by all means.

There are countless "healthy" burger recipes out there, but one thing I always watch out for is filler.  While this recipe does call for a small amount of bread crumbs and an egg, you could most likely get away without it if you really wanted to keep it as lean as possible. 

Burger Mix (makes 5 patties):

• 1 lb. extra lean ground turkey
• 1/2 cup french lentils
• 1 cup stock or water
• 1 zucchini, finely chopped
• 1 cup carrot, finely chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, 2 finely chopped
• 1 tbsp. parsley, finely chopped
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
• 1/2 tbsp. paprika
• 1/2 tbsp. coriander 
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp. salt
• 1/2 tbsp. pepper

Other Ingredients:

• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 tbsp. butter
• 1 sweet potato, cut into fries 
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Any additional burger condiments

Roasted Winter Vegetables

While incessant guilt sort of comes with the territory where I'm from, few things make me feel guiltier than having to throw away food gone bad.  I'm usually very careful about buying exactly what we need for a week, wishing I had a fridge more along the lines of what you'd see in an episode of House Hunters International.  

This week I mismanaged my resources.  Forgetting that finals week at work comes with a pouring of gratitude from the administration in the form of breakfast burrito bars, and matched by the union with deep-dish pizza, I didn't consume wisely.  (I swear I only had a half slice of pizza...and I was serving it all day to my very deserving colleagues.)  Oh, I also had my monthly serving of red meat at a lovely retirement party for our department secretary (who I will miss dearly) at a swanky steakhouse.  Burritos, deep-dish, steakhouse.  Should I go for a beef and hotdog tonight to cap off this Chicago culinary journey?

Basically,  I needed to make something that was hearty enough to last a few rounds of leftovers, was particularly healthy, and required a bunch of produce.  Curried, roasted winter vegetables.  That will do.

Grilled Chicken and Veggies

Behold our most common dinner: Grilled Chicken and Vegetables