To do: Tiramisu cupcakes

Far and away, my favorite dessert is tiramisu. I have made a version of it a couple of times and an ice cream version, which is pretty awesome. Rory today sent me this link to tiramisu cupcakes. One day I will make them and they will be awesome.

A site I like

Need to give props to another cooking site that's does a good job: Food Babies. If you don't know what a food baby is go to urban dictionary.

They do a nice job and give a good mix of cooking and eating out. I made their banana bread recipe yesterday and it was the best I've ever had (sorry mom). I did the naughty recipe and added some chocolate chips. Really, really good.

Photos

Pork top loin roast with Mediterranean spices.

I've been taking more picture of the food I've been cooking and have been very happy with how they have turned out. It's a combination of better lighting-- a lot of the pics I've taken have been outside and the lighting in my old kitchen was horrible--and that I've been taking them all with my new 4G iPhone.

The camera on the new device is really great. I had the 3G iPhone previously and the pictures always seemed grainy and you had to hold it very still. I don't know if they put some new image stabilization software in it or what, but I've been very happy with the pictures that I've taken with it. Also, there's no shutter lag, you can hit the button and it takes another shot almost instantly, much better than my point-and-click Canon.

I know this may seem like a shameless plug for Apple--and it kind of is--but I'm happy that I've been able to get more pictures and witht he quality. I might do a video demo in the future using the iPhone to see how that works too. I did a video of our new puppy this week and it turned out great.

Couple of slabs or ribs smoked for five hours with some potatoes in the aluminum foil.

Table 52

I don't typically write about restaurant meals here, but I know a lot of people are interested in the dinner Rory and I had at Table 52 and figured it was easier to do a blog post.

Table 52 is Art Smith's first restaurant. I'm a Smith fan and when he opened the restaurant a little more than a year ago (I think) I wanted to check it out. Time passed and when I found a bunch of Visa gift cards I thought it would be a nice treat to go for a nice dinner. I made the reservation back in July for this past Sunday. I wanted to do a Sunday because it's the only night they do fried chicken.

Rory and I show up at the Gold Coast restaurant and are greeted by a very friendly member of the staff. The hostess sat us immediately and a server brought us two deviled eggs for the amuse bouche followed by a large goat cheese biscuit for us to split. The deviled egg was awesome, had a nice salty bite but was also creamy. There was a crunchy garnish as well that added a nice bite. The biscuit was still warm, light and tasty, the goat cheese was not overpowering and added a nice flavor.

For the entrees I ordered the fried chicken that came with au gratin potatoes. Rory order the hog chop with potato waffle. We also spilt a side of the three cheese macaroni and ordered a bottle of pinot noir, can't remember what but it was quite nice.

One of the reasons I don't write about the restaurants I visit is that I don't think I can do the food justice with my words. Because all I can say about the entrees at Table 52 is phenomenal.

The fried chicken was tender and moist and perfectly seasoned. I wonder if they brine or marinate beforehand but I've never had friend chicken like this before. The coating was perfect, not too heavy and not too light. The potatoes were also awesome, creamy and perfectly cooked. There was something in them that gave it a bit of tang but I couldn't figure out what it was.

Rory's hog chop was a new preparation that they had just put on the menu that evening. The large chop was obviously brined and was full of flavor and had a nice pepper bite at the end. It came with a apple puree where the sweetness nicely worked with the savory side of the chip. The potato waffles were also very good. What they did here is take some sort of potato puree and then put it in a waffle maker, which was genius.

Rory and I have gone out for a few really good meals but I had never seen her this excited afterward. She kept saying that she wanted to email Art Smith and tell him how much she loved the meal and how everything got better with each bite.

The three cheese macaroni was also exceptional. It came in a big bowl that has been put in the wood burning stove and has cheese melted all down the side. It was a nice creamy bit that was full of flavor.

For dessert we spilt the 12-layer chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. It too was exceptional.

And then Rory promptly rolled me out of the restaurant because I was stuffed and couldn't move.

Table 52 isn't cheap, though we went all out, at around $200 with tip for both if us. It would have been a lot cheaper if we didn't get the wine, but you're still looking at a good chunk of change, but I would highly recommend it for a special occasion.

Mmmmm, pork

So the last two times I've been to Dominck's I've noticed pork is on sale, or at least some pork is on sale for 99 cents a pound.

Last Friday I bought what was probably six or seven pounds of country ribs for and yesterday I bough a 4.5 pound pork shoulder roast. Now I know this isn't tenderloin and these cuts require a little bit more work, but it's worth it.

I took half the country ribs and froze them and with the other half I seared them and then cooked them in a basic tomato sauce: onions, garlic, oregano, thyme, red wine etc. Let them cook in the sauce for a few hours and then serve with some steamed brown rice.

I'm going to use a spice rub on the pork shoulder and slow cook it in the oven, probably 275-300 degrees for a few hours.

For $10 I'm getting four good meals, yeah, the cooking takes longer, but there's no reason it can't be done.

Bacon fat

I got the latest issue of Savuer in the mail today, which makes me sad because I won't be able to cook anything from it for awhile.

There was one particular article that resonated with me, cooking with bacon fat. Sadly, the article isn't posted online. It talked about how bacon fat was used by the poor in the south and frowned upon by others in the 1800s.

I'm guilty of using bacon fat probably a bit too often (hence the South Beach diet now). If I would cook up bacon in the morning and forget to clean my cast iron skillet I'm not above using some of that fat to cook whatever I may be making that evening. It adds a flavor like nothing other than duck fat.

If you have a chance pick up this issue of Savuer, it's a good one aimed at the home cook. I really enjoyed the article on essential pots and pans too.

Zack recommends: Cast iron

Some shrimp fajitas I cooked in the ten-inch pan, doesn't the food just look better in cast iron?

Initially, cast iron scared the crap out of me. "What do you mean you don't wash it?" "Doesn't everything stick?"

But after awhile my opinion changed, but it took awhile. My buddy Ed is the reason I first bought my first cast iron pan about four-years ago. He told me about this great way to cook steak. You crank the oven to 450-475 and throw the pan in there for at least a half hour to get nice and hot. You take your steak, sprinkle with some salt and pepper, and place it in the pan for three to five minutes a side depending on thickness and how you like it done.

That first 10-inch cast iron pan, which I still have, was used at first for just cooking steak, which meant I used it three or four times a year. But it was cheap, costing around $20.

But then I found another use for the pan, roasting chicken. I've posted this recipe before, but I can't emphasize how well the chicken turns out using this method. I made one last week and it was just fantastic.

The monster 15-inch cast iron pan, look at how much space it takes up on the cook top.

Cooking chicken like this caused me to purchase my second cast iron pan, a mammoth 15-incher. You could kill a man with this pan, I'm not joking, it weighs a ton. I bought it for $40 from the Wooden Spoon when I took a cooking class there.

I bought it because I figured I could roast two chickens at once, something I still haven't done two-years later. In retrospect this pan isn't very practical. It's so big it doesn't heat well over on burner and so heavy it's a pain to move around easily, especially when it's been in a 450 oven for half an hour. That said I do find myself using it a little more often because the 10-inch pan is too small for some things I've been cooking.

However, I find myself using the 10-inch pan on almost a daily basis. I keep it on the cook top and use it for eggs in the morning and if I cook in the evening I saute in it. It's taught me the importance of heat control and I love how easy it is to take from the cook top to the oven. It may be the most versatile piece of kitchen equipment I have.

But it's not without it's share of pain. Cast iron is very different from non-stick cookware and will take some getting used to, but I think the food tastes better when it's cooked in cast iron and it's worth taking the time to learn how to use.

I think the steps I took would be a good way to get to know your cast iron. But one and experiment with chicken and steaks and then test other recipes.

As for cleaning the cast iron you can use water. Sometimes I'll get the pan hot, pour a little bit of water in there and scrap out any dried on bits. While the pan is still warm take a little vegetable oil and whip it around the pan to keep it in good shape.

I do have one other piece of cast iron cookware, an enamel cast iron dutch oven that adore, but that's an entry for another time.

Business note: I'm out of town next week travelling on business so I probably won't be posting.

Zack recomends: Shallots

I'll admit using shallots are a total cooking snob move. Up until about a year ago I had used them occasionally in my cooking, but after reading Kitchen Confidential and hearing that's what chefs use to nudge their cooking up I've made them a staple in my kitchen.

There is rarely a trip I make to the store where I don't pick some up now. I tend to always have three or four, if not more, on the windowsill of my kitchen ready to go in case I need them. I know people do this with onions as well, and onions are great. But if you need something a bit more subtle, but still a great flavor use a shallot.

I use them in a lot of different aspects of my cooking to give food an extra little flavor and kick. From pan sauces to pasta a shallot can make all the difference and just add another dimension of flavor.

And yes, I guess they're kind of expensive. The Dominick's I shop at had a bulk bin where I grab mine from, but I never seem to spend more than $2 on them. You can spend that on two onions. And I prefer shallots because you use the whole thing and don't have to worry about half an onion stinking up your fridge.

Inspired by this post last week on Chicagoist I decided to make a frittata this weekend, but instead of using onions I used shallots. It had a nice rich flavor and was really easy to make, something I am sure to experiment with in the future.

Zack recommends: Saveur

For my birthday this year my parents got me a subscription to Saveur. My buddy Jay recommended it and said it was better than most of the other ones out there and more up my alley.

And he was right, it's blowing me away. The theme of the first issue I received was butter. The Second issue was pasta, more specifically Bolognese, a sauce I love to cook. Some of the recipes are very complex, other are simple, but it's the writing that blows me away.

The feature on the City of Ragu and Bologna was some of the best food writing I've seen. Sadly, it's not online, but I felt as if I could almost smell the city and the foods. At some point I will make all the Bolognese recipes feature in the issue, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

The one recipe I did make is this pound cake recipe, which was a bit of an adventure. It just looked too good to pass up. Now I don't own a tube pan and when I went to buy one all they had were silicon bundt pans. I know silicon is supposed to be great to bake with, but I wasn't feeling good about it.

The assembling of ingredients went fine. I places the bundt pan on a cookie sheet I let it cook for an hour and it wasn't done. Ten minutes late I checked it again and the toothpick came out clean. I let it rest for 15 or 20 minutes and removed it without an issue.

The pound cake was going to be the case for strawberry shortcake, which I soaked in a little balsamic. Time was growing short and we needed to be out the door in a bit so I was trying to figure out how to transport it when I noticed the center was all gooey. The middle hadn't cooked all the way. I blamed placing it on the cookie sheet because the heat didn't have a chance to cook through the center of the pan.

So what did I do? I cut it out. I took a knife and cut out the portion that was gooey and sliced up the rest of the cake. It worked and what we had was quite excellent. Though I didn't tell my friends what happened. I told them I had trouble getting it out of the pan.