Seadog Sushi - Chicago, IL

I've been eyeing this sushi restaurant since it opened near our neighborhood and was so happy that there was a sushi restaurant near by.  Within the past six months, I've only been there twice now and it's not because I didn't like it, I just keep forgetting that it's there.  I failed to take pictures the first time, but here's what I had for dinner with Aleen awhile back.  

Aleen loves gomaae, spinach with sesame dressing. so we got an order of that.  It came in three little mounds of steamed spinach with sesame dressing on top.  

Roasted Garlic Bread and Compound Butter

A perfect compliment to the cioppinio is roasted garlic bread.  This is pretty fantastic.  All you do it cut off the tops of the garlic, pour some olive oil on top and bake in your oven until the garlic gets soft.  I used 1 garlic bulb and one stick of butter, but you can use more or less depending on your preference.  

Let butter come to room temperature and mix with the roasted garlic pieces.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  

I added chopped herbs I had on hand, like rosemary and thyme.  

Slice a loaf of french bread lengthwise.  Generally spread the garlic butter mixture and bake in the oven.

I was too busy devouring this to take pictures.  But trust me, it's delicious!

I went overboard and made a lot of garlic butter, but fear not, you can use the excess to make compound butter.  All you have to do it put a blob on it on parchment paper and roll it up into a log.

Twist the ends together and you can freeze it.  It's a great way to get rid of extra herbs you have on hand.  I just slice off a slice of compound butter to flavor any dish I'm making.  It's great!

Judith's Dungeness Crab Cioppino

Jung introduced me to this recipe and I devoured bowls and bowls of this.  I felt up to the challenge one weekend so I went grocery shopping to only realize that I couldn't find Dungeness Crab anywhere.  Thankfully Whole Foods had frozen crab legs so I improvised.  I'm sure this would be amazing with Dungeness Crab, but this was still unbelievably good.  

Judith's Dungeness Crab Cioppinio

Michael Mina

3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

8 large garlic cloves—6 finely chopped, 2 whole

3 jalapeños, seeded and minced

2 red bell peppers, finely chopped

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 large bay leaf

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1/2 cup dry red wine

One 28-ounce can peeled tomatoes, finely chopped, juices reserved

Four 8-ounce bottles clam broth

1 1/2 cups water

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup packed basil leaves

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

4 steamed Dungeness crabs, about 2 pounds each (or in my case 2 pounds of frozen crab legs)

2 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed

2 pounds firm, white-fleshed fish fillets such as halibut, skinned and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks

2 pounds large shrimp, shelled and deveined

2 pounds mussels, scrubbed

1 pound sea scallops, halved vertically if large

Crusty bread, for serving

It helps to do the prep before, so I started chopping up the bell peppers and onions.  

Province - Chicago, IL

I am so embarrassed that I am months and months behind in my posts.  I can't even remember what I ate.  This was a lovely dinner though that I had with my friend Christina.  

We were greeted with an amuse bouche of fried olives.  It took us awhile to figure out what to order so they accidentally brought us two plates of this.  Psst... don't tell anyone, we didn't mind though.  :)

The Gage - Chicago, IL

I went to the Gage awhile back for Chef's Week.  A couple friends and I went there for lunch.  They didn't have their Chef's Week menu up so we didn't really know what to expect.  Here was what our choices were.