This plate of rich risotto, morels, asparagus and cream chive sauce actually takes less than 30 minutes if you get the timing right. Also note that this is the first vegetarian dish featured here. I used the fresh stuff I got from the farmer's market this weekend.

You can follow Simmerstock's recipe or this lemony mushroom risotto from Epicurious. Cooking risotto while sauteing the mushrooms and preparing the other ingredients is a great way to sharpen your cooking prowess. Risotto requires constant attention and frequent stirring, but at $32 a pound, you don't want to wander from your morels either. But I need to be honest with my readers, I used a boxed risotto. You still need to keep an eye on it and stir it once in a while, but it only took twenty minutes.

Packaged Risotto or ingredients from above recipes
At least 3 large morels, and 4-5 smaller ones
3-4 ozs of mixed mushrooms - oysters, shitakes, or other woodsy shrooms
3-4 sprigs of fresh chives, I used some asian flat leaf chives.
1 T goat cheese
2 baby leeks
6-7 asparagus tips
2 shallots
heavy cream
butter

While cooking the risotto, saute the other mushrooms in some butter, with a chopped shallot. When the shrooms are brown, deglaze the pan with some sherry, add some chopped chives. In a separate pan, boil some chopped leeks for about 40 seconds. Add to the mushrooms, add a tablespoon of goat cheese and mince in a food processor.

You'll need some big morels if you want to properly stuff them, plus some smaller ones for garnish. I had three big morels and four or five small ones. I cut the stems off and sliced the small ones lengthwise.

Saute all the morels in plenty of butter and add some more chopped chives, than whisk in some cream. After a minute remove the morels from the sauce, shaking off the excess. Stuff the big morels with the minced shrooms mixture, leaving a big dollop overflowing at the top. Lay on a cooking sheet or pan and lightly broil until the stuffing on top browns. Don't burn the morels! Or you can do like the restaurants and cheat - put a few dollops of stuffing on a sheet of tin foil, put it under the broiler and when its brown, take them out and stick them on the top of your morels.

Boil the asparagus tips in a bit of rice wine and more chives, just until tender. Slice some leeks thinly and throw in the boiling liquid for about twenty seconds.

Plate everything - first put a pile of risotto in the center of the plate, arrange the asparagus tips and slices of morels around the pile. Put the stuffed morels on the pile of risotto. Drizzle the cream sauce over everything and drape the thinly sliced leeks on top of the pile.

This is a simple chili, hot and filling. Quick to cook, without any of the real fancyness involved in prepping a serious competition chili.

Last weekend, me and some buddies drove up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and camped by the side of a lake in the middle of the Ottawa National Forest. There was no one around for miles but beavers, loons and owls. It was clear and cold in the 40's the whole weekend. Because a big roaring fire is a necessity for comfort and survival, its difficult to properly tend a fire for cooking. I usually create a fire that makes a deep layer of very hot coals, which makes a hot surface suitable for pan cooking, or an area perfect for burying an aluminum foil packet of meat and vegetables. The tin foil packet is a great way to cook a halved game hen, with some onions and other veggies that steam as well as brown inside the package. But this kind of thing is difficult when 5 guys are trying to keep warm, and tons of wood is being piled on, and everybody wants to re-arrange it to their liking. Unless it's a summer trip, you just can't convince 5 guys not to touch the fire or throw beer cans in it for the 45 minutes your food will need.

So that's my excuse for cheating this time. I've used a Coleman one burner white gas stove forever, for simple cooking, boiling etc. But this time I had a two burner, propane stove, that's as good as a home range. I made some simple chili in a very short time, with some macaroni to help fill us up. Food does a very good job of keeping you warm, and chili is an optimal internal heat source.

1 lb cubed meat. I found some sirloin for this trip.
8 ozs mushrooms
6 plum tomatoes
2 tomatillos. I was surprised to find these in a Pick n' Save in Eagle River WI.
1 large white onion
monterrey jack cheese
2 dried arbol chili pods
2 dried ancho chili pods
4-5 ozs white wine vinegar
rosemary garlic olive oil
a tube of tomato paste
1/2 lb macaroni pasta. I prefer Cavatappi

While I was home, I removed the seeds from the dried chili pods and chopped them coarsely in a food processor. The more arbols you use the hotter it will get. I ziplock bagged them. I filled a small bottle (3-4 oz) with olive oil, a sprig of rosemary, and half a clove of garlic. Ziplock bag the half pound worth of macaroni noodle of your choice. Don't forget to pack the vinegar.

We tend to shop for our fresh food while on the road rather than packing stuff from home. This makes it a bit more adventuresome by forcing us to shop in strange places. Last time we went to southern Indiana to camp, we all stood around the meat counter trying to decide what we wanted to make. 2 women observed 4 guys, acting like we had never been in a grocery store, and asked us if we were all divorced recently.

In Eagle River we entered a giant Pick n' Save, and we did note that such places are too big to shop in for a camping trip. 45 minutes later, we exited with the rest of the chili ingredients, brats, buns, condiments, lighters, enough paper towels and plates and beer for an army. I bought some Leinengukel as well as some Nicolet Brewing's Classic Pilsener to back-up my supply of more serious beer. The Nicolet was strangely reminiscent, but worse than Bavarian Club, a Huber product that we used to get in college for 5 bucks a case. A crisp, slightly metallic, plain pilsener with a lemon juice sourness. It tasted good while sitting in front of a fire in the northwoods, but wouldn't buy this stuff again.

I didn't plan to do the chili the first night, usually on these kinds of trips there's too much drinking to be done the first night. The Coleman stove made it easy to do up some burgers, steaks and brats.

The second night, after hiking around all day, I prepped the chili ingredients by dicing up the vegetables. Note that while the ingredient list above is enough for 5 guys to have a plate full, it isn't enough to fully feed them. On a trip like this everybody likes to bring their own food and share, so plenty of other food was going around. After browning the meat and mushrooms in the flavored oil, I threw in the onions and ground-up chili pods until the onions are sweating. This sort of thing would be difficult on a grate over the fire, trying to stir constantly with smoke in your eyes, and singed hair every time somebody threw something flammable in. Then I put in the tomatoes, and cooked everything until the tomatoes just started to break down, then I added water to cover everything, a squirt or two of tomato paste, the vinegar and let it simmer before boiling some water for the pasta. I prefer Cavatappi, a long curly noodle, more substantial to the miniscule elbow macaroni. It stands up to the meaty bite of the sirloin, cubed a bit larger than full size Vegas dice.

When the Chili is a nice bubbly reduction, about ten minutes over the Coleman burner, cook the pasta, and add it to the pot. I added a dash of Adobe powder (a Puerto Rican mix of garlic, msg, red pepper and who know what else) that somebody had, added the cheese and melted it into the chili. Serve hot with some more cheese on the top. Instant internal heat source.

I've seen this sort of thing done in one pot - brown the meat, add the veggies and water bring to a boil, add the pasta and cook it together, but I think that just gets pasty, and besides, I had the luxury of two pots and two burners.

I went to my first farmer's market of the season this morning in Evanston and bought some nice stuff. It's very special stuff but it's not cheap.

I got some asparagus from a farm in Michigan, leeks from Nichols farm in Marengo Il, levian sourbread from Bennison's Bakery, asian flat leaved chives from Henry's Farm and morels from River Valley Mushroom in Wisconsin.

The season is very early for farmer's markets, but the selection, wasn't as skimpy as I though it would be. Many sellers had a large selection of potted herbs and one booth had hydroponic lettuce and other green leafy things. The new addition to this year's market is fresh baked goods. Bennison's, an Evanston bakery that's been around forever, offers several artisan loaves at expensive prices ($4 for a big loaf of chaibatta or sourdough). Another bakery had some nice looking bread and pies.

As usual, there are plenty of jarred products like jams, honey, (half gallon containers and honey combs are available) marinated mushrooms. And there's a cheese guy with a huge variety. Truckloads of flowers and plants are available, but the most interesting to me are the edible flowers from Henry's Farm.

I was most happy to get some morels from River Valley Mushroom who also had portabellos, chantrelles and some others. Morels are nice, but at $32 bucks a pound, the 5 bucks worth I bought better be really nice. The had some that were big enough to stuff, but I perfer the smaller ones.

Tonight, at my local pub, I heard one of the other locals talking about making a run. Several other locals feigned either interest or disgust. I side stepped next to him and asked how much I could get. He gave me several choices of quantity and potency. I agreed to his terms and we shoke hands, the twenty in my hand passing to his, unoticed by the casual observer. I agreed to meet, at the same time, same place, tomorrow, and he would deliver the goods. I suggested, as is customary in these sorts of deals, that he 'take a little of the top' as an extra payment for his delivery. He said he can go through twenty bucks worth in one week by himself. He actually admitted that doing this stuff everyday couldn't be good for you.

I heard much about this stuff, the strong and potent variety, as well as the mellow and comforting kind. I had done the softer stuff, but now, I was taking the big step, getting someone to get me the harder stuff. I was experimenting with sausage. Italian sausage.

Welcome to the KIPlog Foodblog, an experiment in food, photography and weblogging. I plan to do a fair amount of experimentation here in all three areas so please ignore the mess.

The first experiment is with food. My plan is to buy, cook and eat the best I can while still being affordable. I'm a true omnivore, so you'll see just about everything here. I intend to document the best food and the best deals in Chicagoland food shopping. The recipes you'll see here will mostly be experiments, since I'll be trying very new things. I'll try to be honest about what doesn't work and why.

The second experiment is with photography. I'm going to attempt to document the process and the results. I'll be touching on techniques if I learn something. All the photos on this site are mine.

I should note that I'm not a professional in either of these first two areas, although I have been at some point in the past.

The third experiment is in weblogging. For close to 3 years, I've run KIPlog, a weblog about things on and about the Web. I've done it by hand, without the use of a content management system. This Foodblog will run Movable Type, an amazing, free system for managing a blog. While I've played other Content Management Systems, and set them up for clients, I've never attempted to run my blog with them. Somehow it's kind of like using some sort of fancy kitchen mixer to replace the job you used to get your hands greasy doing. I'll have to get used to it. Also MT allows me to let you, the reader, add to the info presented here. The archiving and categorization features of MT are also going to be useful. I just have to figure all these features out. There's a lot to learn, and there's a lot to do on this page. I haven't even come up with a catchy name yet, and while Foodblog isn't very original, it's exactly what it is and I'll use it for now. I could have waited until the page was perfect, but the food comes first. (I've checked the layout so at least it doesn't horribly fall apart in most browsers, but let me know if you see anything really busted.

I've posted a few recipes below to literally and figuratively wet your appettite.

Update: This recipe got clipped off and lost during some site maintenance. At one time it was a very high google result for Thai Chicken Curry, which was a shame since it's not very authentic Thai, and many have commented on that fact. But this is something I make all the time because I always have most of the ingredients on hand. If I always had kaffir leaves and other more authentic ingredients around, I would be making a far different curry. In the interest of those seeking real Thai curry, see the recipe below mine

This semi-Thai-style chicken curry has lots of varieties of peppers and mushrooms in it. The ginger, curry, tarragon and saffron give this hot dish a flowery aroma.

1 can coconut milk
1 finger hot pepper
1 hot thai pepper
1 poblano
1 halapeno
1 red bell pepper
1 oz dried shitakes
1 oz dried oyster mushrooms
1 oz wood ear or other fungus
(about 4-5 mushrooms of each)
1/2 teaspoon red curry paste
1 teaspoon curry
2 skinless chicken breasts
ground ginger
dried tarragon
ginger juice
butter
rice flour
5 strands of saffron

Soak the dried mushrooms in simmering water for 8-10 minutes. Meanwhile, chop up the peppers, diced the hot ones really small, leaving the poblano and red pepper in two inch juliennes. Moderate the heat by removing the seeds and inside membranes of the hotter peppers.

Cut up the chicken into large bite size pieces and dust them with ginger and tarragon. Brown in a big frying pan. Strain the mushrooms, reserving the liquid. They always tell you to strain the liquid through a coffee filter, but I just let the sediment settle, and pour only the top. Slice the shrooms into thin strips, and add to the pan, with 2 tablespoons of butter. Let the shrooms brown just a bit, then add the peppers. Add some drops off ginger juice and some more tarragon. The two make a wonderful smell together. Mix the red curry paste with a little water and some yellow powdered curry. If you can find Panang paste, this is the best. Add the curry mix to the pan, and mix everything up. Add the coconut milk. Add the saffron. Simmer to reduce the liquid a bit. Add a mixture of half a tablespoon of rice flour to half a tablespoon of water to the pan to thicken. Serve over rice, perferably jasmine.

One comment I recieved on this recipe made fun of the butter and tarragon and noted "Almost any recipe you'll find for Red Curry asks you to fry the red curry paste in a few tablespoons of coconut cream" and "I'd probably ditch the saffron, the rice flour, and ground ginger too. ;)"

Well since the commenter is an actual far-eastern chef, I have to agree. And in the interest of the traditional dish, I post Madman Madhu's red curry recipe (takes 10 minutes):

200 ml thick coconut milk
2 T of Red Curry Paste
1/4 - 1/2 cup chicken stock (depending on how thick you like the curry)
200 gm boneless chicken breasts
1 T fish sauce
4 red chillies (adjustable to taste)
2 teaspoons palm sugar
2 Kaffir Lime leaves (sliced into thin strips)

Let the coconut milk rest for a while so that the cream forms on the top.

Heat wok, add coconut cream and let it bubble. When the oil starts separating, add the red curry paste and the red chillies and stir well till the curry paste is blended into the cream. Cook for 3-4 few minutes till the oil separates from the mixture.

Add the rest of the coconut milk, stock, fish sauce, and palm sugar and bring the mixture to a gentle simmer. Add the chopped chicken breast pieces, stir well, and let it simmer for about 5 minutes till the oil floats to the top and separates from the curry. Add the Kaffir Lime leaf strips, stir-once and turn off the heat. Let it sit for a minute or two for the lime leaf flavour to permeate the curry.

That's all there is. Want to add mushrooms? Reduce the quantity of chicken and use mushrooms in its place. Throw it in at the same time as the chicken.

Couldn't be simpler. All you have to watch for is the salt level in the food. Some brands of fish sauce are saltier than others. You may not need any fish sauce if your curry is salty enough.

This sounds like a lot of prep for a sandwich, but pound for pound, it's a great deal.

eye of the round roast
Ajvar (eggplant and red pepper vegatable spread)
shallots
garlic
rosemary
salt and pepper
lettuce
Italian or French bread

I've been buying my meat at Village Market Place in Skokie (4034 Dempster), with lots of unique eastern European food products and a quality, low priced meat department. I got a huge lamb shoulder blade a few weeks ago for 15 bucks. You can find the Ajvar there as well. Look for the bright red spread in Hungarian or Greek shops. Obviously get a roast proportionate to the people you are feeding, but a $20 cut should feed a family for several days. It lasted me through four days worth of sandwiches, stews and udon noodle dishes.

Prep the roast by sticking some slices of garlic and shallots and rosemary sprigs into slits cut in the meat. Rub on some salt pepper and dried herbs of your choosing. Sear the roast in a big pan, browning it on all sides. Take it out of the pan, wrap some butcher twine around it, length wise and width wise. You might want to take the opportunity to do some roasted potatoes along with the meat. Add a cup of water to the roasting pan and put the meat on a rack. Roast at 350F until just a bit more than rare. 140F internal temp. Let sit for 15 minutes. Carve it up as thin as you want, put it on thick slices of bread, slather on some ajvar, put some lettuce on it, and serve.