Suzanne stumbled across this recipe a couple weeks ago and emailed it to me with the subject “Make me yummy food.” I never say no to requests like that. After looking at the recipe, it became even more compelling. A Graham Elliot recipe. Beef Stroganoff. Elaborate and involved. It sounded like fun. The original recipe is here.

I’ve always like beef stroganoff, even as a kid. Growing up, my mom would make “beef stroganoff”. I quote it for a reason: take some ground beef, brown it, throw in a can of cream of mushroom soup and some sour cream, add season with salt & pepper. Mix & serve over egg noodles. This was altogether a different dish.

So here’s the recipe, with my comments and/or changes in italic.

Shallot marmalade

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
10 shallots, sliced crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick rings
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup sherry vinegar

I didn’t have enough shallots on hand, so I used 7 shallots and a large white onion.

In a medium, deep sauté pan over moderate heat, melt the butter. Add the shallot rings and sauté until translucent, about 8 minutes.

Add the sugar and vinegar and continue cooking until amber in color and thickened to the consistency of molasses, about 20 minutes. DO AHEAD: The shallots can be made in advance and refrigerated, in an airtight container, up to 3 days.

I was tempted to just eat this up. It’s onion candy. Wow.

Peppered spaetzle

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and keep at a bare simmer. Fill a large bowl with very cold ice water.
In a second large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and pepper.

In a blender, combine the eggs, sour cream, and 1 cup water. Purée until smooth then add to the flour mixture and stir to combine (the consistency should be a little thicker than pancake batter, so adjust with more flour or more water as needed).

Working over barely simmering water, force half the batter through a spaetzlemaker, food mill, or colander. Let the spaetzle float to the surface—this will take about 1 minute—wait 30 seconds, then use a mesh skimmer or slotted spoon and transfer the spaetzle to the bowl of ice water. Once cool, transfer the spaetzle to a colander to drain. Repeat with the remaining batter. DO AHEAD: Spaetzle can be made in advance and refrigerated, in an airtight container, up to 2 days.

This seemed to have worked well enough, but I had the batter too thin and they didn’t fry nicely and ended up a bit mushy.

Peppered crème fraîche

1/2 cup crème fraîche
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

In a small bowl, stir together the crème fraîche and pepper. The crème fraîche should have an intense pepper note, so add more pepper to taste if necessary. DO AHEAD: The crème fraîche can be made in advance and refrigerated, in an airtight container, up to 1 day.

The beef
4 (1-inch thick) beef tenderloin steaks (about 2 pounds total)
3 tablespoons olive oil

I diverged somewhat here. Keeping an eye on the budget, I opted for a nice grass fed stew beef instead of tenderloin. I’ll reserve tenderloin for a nice steak sometime. I dried the beef and cut it down into smaller pieces. I then browned it in a large dutch oven before adding the broth and some red wine. I dropped the temperature to a simmer and let the beef braise for a couple hours, until it fell apart when stabbed with a fork. Then I drained it and reserved 1/2 cup of the braising liquid for the mushroom puree (below).

Season the steaks with salt and pepper. In a large heavy skillet over moderately high heat, heat the olive oil until hot but not smoking. Cook the steaks to desired doneness, about 4 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer to a cutting board as done and tent with foil. Let rest for about 5 minutes before serving.

Mushroom purée

3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups (about 12 ounces) black trumpet, portobello, or cremini mushrooms, thoroughly cleaned and roughly chopped
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
4 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed and chopped
6 tablespoons sherry vinegar, plus more to taste
1/2 cup beef stock
3/4 cup grapeseed oil
2 tablespoons truffle oil (optional)

I used a mix of crimini and fresh shitake.

In a large sauté pan over moderately high heat, heat 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil until hot but not smoking. Add 1/2 the mushrooms and sauté until golden brown, about 1 minute. Add 1/2 the garlic, shallots, and thyme and continue sautéing until the shallots are tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Add 3 tablespoons of vinegar and continue cooking until the vinegar is almost completely evaporated, about 30 seconds. Transfer to a large bowl and repeat with the remaining olive oil, mushrooms, garlic, shallots, thyme, and vinegar. Once all the mushrooms are sautéed, reserve about 1/2 cup.

Transfer the remaining mushrooms to a blender, add the beef stock, and purée until smooth. With the blender on, slowly add the grapeseed oil and truffle oil, if using, and continue processing until the sauce is smooth, aerated, and emulsified, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and a splash of vinegar if necessary.

In my opinion, the additional vinegar here is not required. The final dish had a very nice tartness.

To serve

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup fresh dill, minced

In a small saucepan over low heat, warm the mushroom purée. When warm, transfer to a gravy boat or other serving dish.

In a large sauté pan over moderately high heat, melt the butter. Add 1/2 of the spaetzle and sauté without stirring until golden brown on the bottom, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the remaining spaetzle, the reserved 1/2 cup of mushrooms, and the shallot marmalade and sauté until warmed through, 3 to 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a serving dish.

Thinly slice the steaks and arrange the meat on a small platter. Dollop the crème fraîche over the meat and sprinkle with the dill. Serve immediately.

Since it was just us and there’d be loads of leftovers, we simply layered everything (spaetzle, meat, puree, and crème fraîche) on one platter.

Once spooned out onto a plate and ready to eat, everything mixed nicely together.

The result was just amazing. We had to explicitly stop eating and pack up leftovers or we might have eaten it all.. it was that good.

There were five trucks in attendance, and we got something from four as we’d had food from the tamalespaceship before.

Gaztrowagon: we got two naan-wiches: Caprese (tomato onion salad, pesto, mozzerella), and Beef Cheesesteak (beef, peppers, onions, pepperjack cheese). The Beef Cheesesteak was very tasty, if a little small. I’d get it again. The Caprese was tasty enough, but seemed very odd hot (it reminded me of Rimmer’s “Hot Gazpacho”). I think would be much better served cold. I’ll pass on the Caprese, but would;t mind checking out some of the other options.

Southern Mac & Cheese: New Mexican (green chili, pepperjack, and cojita). This was really good, but then who doesn’t like a good Mac & Cheese. This one was especially nice. And the flavor we chose was only available in the large container, so there was plenty to have some each for dinner with a lunch for Suzanne left over for the next day. We’re eager to try some of their other flavors.

Meatyballs Mobile: Thai’d Balls (turkey, coconut milk, Chili sauce, sweet peppers), Pizza Balls (ricotta balls, tomato sauce, mozzarella, sausage). We both loved the Thai’d Balls (but then we’re a little kinky anyway). The Pizza Balls (a chef’s special that night) left a bit to be desired. Not so meaty with just a bit of sausage, and with plenty of green peppers (leaving Suzanne out of this one). The ricotta was fine, but the whole package fell short of what we’d expected after the Thai’d. We’ll go back tho this truck, but not for Pizza Balls.

Flirty Cupcakes: Devil In Disguise (red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting), The McDreamy (chocolate cupcake with a cream cheese & chocolate filling). What better way to finish off our food truck meal than at a cupcake truck. These were very tasty, indeed. No disappointments here.

Overall, the food was good, but suffered from having to be prepared and packaged in advance. The naan and meatball rolls were somewhat soggy and doughy from being exposed to the fillings for some period of time. The rules around food service in Chicago are retarded. Being able to do final prep and assembly on the spot, as required, results in such a better product. Both of us agree that we wouldn’t be interested in a prefab burrito. We got burritos from the taco truck outside our place in San Francisco occasionally. That was a big thing there, and they had reasonable rules.

Not quite so bad is the fact that the cupcakes had to be prepackaged as well. We ended up getting 2 full sized cupcakes in stead of the selection of 4 that we would have preferred, since they didn’t have our mix of choice made up.

Next Tuesday is the last chance for this event, and we expect to be there.

Chicago is coming along, and may someday join the the 21st century in this regard. Then we just have to ditch the unions.

We had guests for dinner tonight, and Suzanne made a stellar risotto. What was the star ingrediants, you might ask. Well… um… squash (hmm) and… kale (gulp).

You might correctly jump to the conclusion that I am not fan of either. You would be largely correct. At least until last night. I’ve never overly liked squash. I’ve tolerated it in some dishes (curries, for example), and mildly enjoyed it in others (notable a tex-mex style squash soup). Kale is another story entirely. I have actively despised it in any form.

So you can imagine that I was skeptical when Suzanne said she was making risotto (yum) with squash & kale (hrumph). But given other things she’d made, I was prepared to be pleasantly surprised. And that I was.

She started with a recipe at Epicurious: Risotto with Tuscan Kale and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds:

Ingrediants:

4 cups vegetable stock
2 cups water
1 bunch baby Tuscan kale, rib removed (also called cavolo nero or lacinato kale or dino kale)
4 cups butternut squash, coarsely chopped
4 medium leeks, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice (10 ounces)
1/3 cup dry white wine
grated Parmigiano-Reggiano to taste

Accompaniment:toasted pumpkin seeds

Method:

Make the risotto as usual, adding the squash after having added 2 cups of liquid. Add the kale after all the liquid has been added.

My buddy @stesla and I had some bro time tonight. Meeting up after work for a beer at 21st Amendment. We settled for a single glass each as we were on your way into the Mission for food.

I had the Imperial Jack (Big ESB. malty with a hoppy edge: 8.7% abv / 45 IBUs). This is one nice ESB.

@tesla had the Blind Lust (Belgian Strong w/oak aged framboise: 9.5% abv / 35 IBUs). I had this the other night. It has a lovely flavor and slightly amber color.

After beer we hopped the #12 into the Mission and dropped into Taqueria Guadalajara for a Super Carnitas Burrito. Seriously one of the tastiest Carnitas Burritos I’ve had in the Bay Area. I’ve been told the taco truck at our corner is good as well, but I have yet to check that.

Then it was over to Humphry Slocombe for ice cream where I had the Pepper-Mint and the Beer-week “Napa Smith Bon Fire Imperial Porter”. Unlike the beer ice cream I had on Sunday, I liked this one. It wasn’t noticably yeasty or hoppy, but was pleasantly malty.