A Dinner Worthy of a Beautiful Weekend
A feast for the eyes, and this week's Chicago region farmers market schedule
Beautiful Weekend Rates a Good Dinner
It was truly a beautiful weekend here in Chicago. Saturday was an answer to that “Why do you live in Chicago?” question we get during the winter. Cool, breezy and not a cloud in the sky. Sunday was warmer but still beautiful.
So I decided to go all in on Sunday dinner. That’s a grass-fed New York strip steak, grilled stovetop (in a cast-iron pan, of course), with cherry tomatoes from Iron Creek Farm (La Porte, Indiana) cooked in the same pan, and a mushroom and asparagus risotto.
I hadn’t made risotto in ages so I resorted to a recipe from the Fine Cooking site that worked very well. It includes organic arborio rice from Whole Foods Market; asparagus from Mick Klug Farm (St. Joseph, Michigan); mushrooms from River Valley Ranch (Burlington, Wisconsin); and homemade chicken broth.
One thing to note is that risotto recipe authors have moved away from the traditional method in which you had to keep stirring constantly as you add increments of broth, a process that can take upwards of 20-25 minutes. The current thinking is just to stir frequently to keep the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan, which works just fine.
It was a delicious meal. I also spent a lot of time over the weekend near the lake, and I’m going to send out a rare second issue of Local Food Forum later today because I have some pretty photos I’d like to share (including baby geese!).
But back to food… here’s the weekly day-by-day farmers market schedule.