Avocados

There are not many things that I enjoy eating more than a perfectly ripened avocado. I usually go to Aldi (see footnote) and buy 3-4 a week. Typically we slice them up and put them on grilled meats or I whip up a quick batch of guacamole. When I am in a salad mood, I make a simple vinaigrette with Olive Oil, Orange Muscat Vinegar, Salt, and Cumin and toss sliced avocados and greens. One of my favorite things is very simple and delicious Black Bean and Avocado salad than can even double as a dip. The recipe follows:

1 can of Black Beans, drained and rinsed
1-2 jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped

1/4 cup of chopped cilantro (more if you like it)

1-2 seeded, chopped tomatoes

1/4 tsp of cumin

Juice of one lime

kosher salt to taste

1-2 avocados, cut into small cubes

Mix it all together and let sit for a minimum of 1 hour to let the flavors blend.

Mediterranean Chicken Kebabs

1 teaspoon of each of the following dried spices: thyme, rosemary, oregano, tarragon, parsley, and lemon pepper mix (I always use Penzey’s spices, they are cheaper and fresher than anything you will find at a grocery store)
¼ teaspoon of garlic powder (or 2-3 cloves of fresh garlic)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 yellow pepper cut into 1-inch chunks
1 red pepper cut into 1-inch chunks
1 large zucchini, cut into 1-inch chunks
Feta Yogurt Sauce (recipe follows)

Mix all spices, salt, water, olive oil and lemon juice in a bowl. Put chicken in a container of some sort. Pour marinade over chicken and let marinate 4-6 hours or overnight.

Feta Yogurt Sauce

1 cup of nonfat plain yogurt
1/3 cup crumbled feta
1/2 teaspoon cumin
Juice of 1 lemon
Cayenne pepper to taste
Garnish with chopped fresh parsley

Mix everything except parsley, garnish as desired. If you leave it in the fridge for about 1 hour the flavors blend together much better.

When you are ready to cook, place all of the veggies in the bag with the marinated chicken. Shake it up and make sure everything is coated. Start your grill and let the bag of food sit until the grill is nice and hot. Now you can kebab everything up, which is nice when you have guests, but I just lay down a couple of grill grates and throw everything on there. It is much easier and you get more even cooking because you can move everything around.

When everything is done cooking, put it in a bowl or a platter and serve with the yogurt sauce. I think next time I will either try an Indian or Southwestern twist on this recipe.

Dennis Getto's Top 30

I have love-hate relationship with Dennis Getto. On one hand he is the go-to authority on dining in the state. His reviews can make or break a restaurant. On the other hand, he is fairly easy on most restaurants and I have found that some places he raves about are pretty average. Also, he drives me nuts with his petty jabs at restaurants that make “traditional” dishes and add their own touches. He seems to do this to let the readers know that he does have some culinary training. This review of Trocadero has 2 of them alone. In fact he actually titled the review “Dishes are misnamed or misleading, but brunch is a hit” Here is what he said “Another item in the misnomer category was a soup called pistou ($5.50). In French cooking, pistou is made with white beans and lots of fresh basil, olive oil and garlic. Trocadero's version was made with garbanzo beans and tasted only a little of basil. The soup wasn't bad, but it wasn't pistou.” Some of Gettos other offenses:

He ripped Yokoso for putting a bit of wasabi on the rice before placing the fish on top. This is fairly common at sushi restaurants yet Getto called it “annoying” and gave the restaurant 2 stars (it deserves better)

He ripped Bjonda for serving a raw quail egg with one of their dishes. Well if you didn’t want a fucking raw quail egg then why in the hell did you order a dish that had one with it? Its one thing to complain about food but another to complain about something that you saw on the menu and still ordered.

I can‘t remember what restaurant it was but he ripped a server for having the audacity to ask if he wanted freshly grated parmesan cheese on a seafood pasta dish. Getto claimed that Italians would never put cheese on fish. Last time I checked were not in Italy and some people like parmesan cheese on their seafood pasta dishes, I know I do. Oh yeah Dennis we also live in Wisconsin where we put cheese on everything. Just because you don’t want it doesn’t mean that nobody else should be offered that option. Another case like the quail egg where Getto could have just said “no thanks” when offered the cheese and left it at that. Instead he had to show off his so-called culinary knowledge and dedicate a paragraph to chastising the place for such a cardinal sin.

I could go on and on but I will get back to the top 30 list…..of the 30, I have visited eleven (11) of them. Below I provide a brief snippet of my opinion of these restaurants.

Cubanitas – The Cuban sandwich is great as are the empanadas but the main dishes are nothing spectacular. The pork tenderloin was kind of dry.

Au Bon Appetit – I haven’t been there in years but I remember the food being great…and cheap.

Polonez – I think it’s because I am not a fan of Polish food, but I hated this place. With the exception of some polish sausage, everything was bland. You would have a hard time getting me to go back there. The service however was outstanding and the huge selection of Polish beers kicks ass.

River Lane Inn – Great service, ok food. Scotty’s Crab House, Forty8 or Fishbones does fish way better than this place but they are all surprisingly absent from this list.

Lake Park Bistro – This is one of my favorite places in the City and it deserves any and all accolades it receives. One of the best overall dining experiences you will find in the City. Everything from salads to desert is incredible.

Barossa – It was good, but not great. I had some lamb chops. The side of peas and sweet potatoes was outstanding, the lamb was very average. If I can make something better than a restaurant it doesn’t deserve to be in the top 25. The Chicken EOS is great…but come on…how tough is it to cook chicken?

Roots – It deserves a spot on this list, but still isn’t as great as everyone makes it out to be. The meals are decent but not outstanding. My medium-rare steak arrived medium well. Maybe I am just holding a grudge. The best view in the City can be found here and the Roots cellar is a great place for cocktails.

Jakes – A Milwaukee institution. Some of the best prime rib you will find anywhere. Very deserving of this spot. With the trend toward hip and trendy clones of New York and Chicago eateries, it is great to know that Jake’s is still going strong.

Cempazuchi – Outstanding regional Mexican food. I haven’t been there in 2 years but I love this place.

Rey Sol – Kick ass mole but a lot of mediocre dishes. Not deserving of a spot on this list.

Osteria del Mondo – I have only been here once but I loved the food here. Great atmosphere and even better cuisine. The fried calamari were some of the best in town.

Restaurants that are missing in my opinion:

Japanica - Some of the best sushi in town, but nobody talks about it because it is not downtown (its in a strip mall in Greenfield) or owned by Omar Shaikh. However the newly opened Fujiyama in West Allis is also outstanding. If they keep up the good work, they will give Japanica a run for its money.

Speed Queen – Why should a restaurant be excluded just because you get your food through a drive-through window? The pork shoulder is one of the best meals available in the City.

Sol Fire – One of my favorites. The steak frites with the wine/barbeque sauce is to die for. The plantain encrusted marlin, jerk chicken, and Costa Rican Fish Tacos are also incredible. This place deserves a place atop any “Best of” list. It is shameful that they were snubbed.

Tess – Unpretentious, affordable and best of all, delicious. I thought they were on the list last year. I guess they got bumped. In an online chat today, Getto claims that he is worried about Tess’ ability to maintain the quality of service and food with their large patio in the summer. Ok so you snubbed a place not because their service and quality was bad but because you were worried that it may suffer??!??! Give me a break!

Forty8 – Maybe because it looks more like a bar that Getto ignored this place but the seafood here is outstanding. Everything is done to perfection. The crab stuffed avocado appetizer is unique and delicious. The pecan sea bass with hazelnut cream and the crab cakes are also great!

Fishbones – Maybe Dennis ignored this place because it is way out in Delafield. This place works magic with seafood and the long waits for tables on the weekend are well worth it.

Carini’s La Conca d'Oro – Some of the best Italian food in the City and Dennis ignores them. The signature dish, La Conca d'Oro, with spaghetti with shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams, and calamari is one of my favorite Italian dishes anywhere.

Farmer's Market Article in MKE

MKE (The Journal Sentinel’s attempt to compete with the almighty Shepherd Express) had a great article on Milwaukee Area Farmer’s Markets this week. The article, which can be found here discuses how to shop at one of the many Farmer’s Markets in the area, provides recipes, and tells readers what is in season in each of the months that most markets are running.

My personal favorite is the Madison Farmer’s Market held Saturday mornings on the Capitol Square. If you don’t want to drive to Madison, check out the West Allis Farmer’s Market located at 1559 South 65 Street in the heart of West Allis. Also, click here for a comprehensive list of Wisconsin Markets. All of this talk has me itching for the Milwaukee Public Market, which is slated to open in July. I can hardly wait!

Pomegranate Sauce

My fiancée and I have recently discovered POM, a brand of pomegranate juices that while prohibitively expensive, are delicious and very nutritious. A bottle of POM runs about 4 bucks for what I believe is about 12 to 16 oz of pomegranate juice either straight up or mixed with tangerine, blueberry, orange, or mango juice. Anyhow the delicious taste of Pom inspired me to seek out other ways to enjoy this fruit. I searched the internet and found all kinds of recipes for pomegranate enhanced dishes, most of which involved Pomegranate Molasses, which is really only pomegranate juice reduced to a thick syrup. I was pleased to find it at Sendik’s (a local gourmet grocery store) for a mere $3.50, a full 50 cents cheaper than the juice. Being a fan of duck breasts I decided to make pan seared duck breasts with a pomegranate sauce. I figured that the sauce would work very well because of duck’s affinity for tart sauces to balance the rich taste from the higher fat content.

I found a recipe on the Food Network site for something called Narshrab, which is a Middle Eastern pomegranate sauce. Tweaking this sauce (as I often do) to accommodate for ingredients at hand and personal taste I came up with the following:

My Version of Narshrab (Middle Eastern pomegranate sauce)

1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 cup pomegranate molasses
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tbs of honey
Pinch of salt (kosher, of course)
½ teaspoon of sugar.
Some chopped jalepeno or red pepper flakes to taste (I didn’t either, but I imagine that they would add another dimension to the sauce so I recommend them)

Put all ingredients except cilantro into a microwave safe dish. Heat for about 1½ minutes on high, just enough to dissolve sugar. Stir and add cilantro. (I am thinking that finely chopped chives would be great here as well).

Pour over your choice of meat (I would recommend poultry or pork). This sauce is awesome. It would make a great replacement to the shitty cranberry gel that most people serve at thanksgiving.

Despite the delicious sauce, the duck breasts I made turned out crappy. I will not go into any great detail as to what I did with the breasts because I am not sure what went wrong. (Yes I scored the skin and yes I cooked them over medium heat to render out the fat) I have made duck breasts on one other occasion and they turned out great that time so I am perplexed as to why these kind of sucked. As for seasoning the meat, I used ground coriander, salt, pepper, and granulated garlic.

Grilled Lettuce?!?!

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I am a huge fan of Steven Raichlen and his kick ass grilling books. If you have never seen them, go out and buy “How To Grill” right now. It is the best grilling book ever. Every single recipe that I have tried (over 25 and counting) is outstanding. Anyhow he discusses grilling lettuce, endives to be particular. I was making his Tangerine Soy Tofu (not sure if that is the correct name) and I have a couple of endives. I looked at his book and saw a grilled lettuce recipe but it was more of an Italian style and I was making an Asian style dish so I went to the internet and found a recipe on Epicurious for Endives with Orange Vinaigrette. I tweaked it a bit and here is my version:

Grilled Endives with Orange Vinaigrette

1 navel orange
1 teaspoons white-wine vinegar
½ teaspoon of Orange Muscat vinegar (I got mine at Trader Joes)
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons olive oil
2-4 Belgian endives
Salt and Pepper to taste
Sprinkle of toasted sliced almonds.

With a microplane remove about ½ teaspoon of zest from orange . Squeeze enough juice from orange to measure 1 tablespoon. In a bowl whisk together zest, orange juice, vinegar, 1 tablespoon oil, and salt and pepper to taste until combined well.

Halve endives lengthwise brush all over with remaining 2 teaspoons oil. Season endives with salt and pepper and grill, cut sides down, on a rack set 5 to 6 inches over glowing coals 6 minutes. Turn endives and grill until just tender, 6 minutes more. (Alternatively, endives may be grilled in a hot well-seasoned ridged grill pan over moderately high heat.)

Serve endives drizzled with vinaigrette and toasted sliced almonds

It was outstanding and very easy to make. It is one of those simple, easy and delicious vegetable recipes that will become a regular staple. I can imagine mixing up the ingredients to match whatever style dish I am cooking. Replacing the white wine vinegar with fig infused balsamic and some raspberry vinegar and adding some chopped garlic and topping with toasted pine nuts for an Italian style dish or using some jalapeños, chili powder and some cilantro and topping with some homemade guacamole. The possibilities are endless. I will post future endive experiments as I make them.