Grilled Barramundi with Tomato-Thyme Sauce, Roasted Garlic Polenta ,
Roasted Red Pepper and Braised Leeks
Last Thursday night I went to dinner at Cafe 103 with Erin and Cinnamon. The restaurant is named after the street it’s on, 103rd Street. Gasp! Just kidding. But I rarely get down to the south side of Chicago so it’s always and adventure.
Erin and Scott bought a bungelow down in Beverly a few months back, so Cinnamon and I went to check out her new neighborhood. Beverly is about as far south as you can get and still be in the city limits. I’ve only been down there once before, with Erin and Chuck, and it was years ago. You know, the south side gets a really bad rap by northsiders. Many times and in many areas, it’s for good reason, but we should all try to visit the good spots more. From what I’ve been able to tell Beverly is a perfectly nice, quaint little community that’s really cultured (Beverly Arts Center, anyone?) and has some great independent bars, restaurants, and stores. I’m looking forward to checking it out more now that we have friends there.
Cafe 103 was a great restaurant. No one rushed us, and you know how Erin, Cinnamon and I sit and talk and close down a restaurant every time. The food was delicious. We shared scallop and shrimp appetizers. For dinner I had grilled barramundi, Cinnamon had a mushroom and parmesan ravioli and Erin had a grilled pork chop. Cafe 103 is BYO and of course we stormed through two bottles of wine like it was nobody’s business. Cinnamon was driving and didn’t drink much, so that makes the math even worse! 
Had a great time catching up. Hoping we’re now back on track with our monthly dinners. It had been something like 9 months since our last one!
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Tags:beverly·cafe 103·Chicago·cinnamon·erin
Pistachio Naan, Bhabi’s Kitchen, Rogers Park, Chicago
Chicken Masala, Bhabi’s Kitchen, Rogers Park, Chicago
Colorful Dining Room at Bhabi’s Kitchen, Rogers Park, Chicago
This month Erin and Cinnamon and I went to dinner up in Cinnamon’s neighborhood, Rogers Park. Cinnamon recommended Bhabi’s Kitchen, an Indian restaurant that I’ve heard a lot about but had never visited. I was excited to try Bhabi’s, but also excited just to eat Indian food. I love it and don’t get to eat it much in Chicago. In New York the Indian restaurants were disbursed around the city everywhere. In Chicago there are only a few that come to mind that are not very far north on Devon Avenue. Guess what, though? Devon is not that far when you have a car!
We tried the pakoda (chickpea flour nuggets with onion, fenugreek and spices) as an appetizer. Bite-sized fried pieces with three different sauces. Yum! For my entree I got my old favorite, chicken masala (chicken with a special spicy gravy). I’m used to the dish being prepared with a cream like yogurt mixed in the sauce and with boneless chicken. Here the dish is more of a red sauce and with whole chicken pieces.. so not my favorite preparation, but I still enjoyed the taste of the sauce a lot. Erin loved the bagarey balgan (fresh Indian eggplant cooked with secret spices). I tried a bit and it was delicious. Cinnamon got the saag paneer (fresh spinach cooked with spices and cheese cubes). I’m not a huge fan of spinach cooked down, but I think if you’re a saag paneer fan you’d like this dish. I tried a bit and it was good.
I especially enjoyed Bhabi’s Kitchen’s unique selection of breads. According to this Smithsonian Magazine article, there are 20 varieties of bread made with six different flours. We tried the makal corn flour bread and the pistachio naan (with mixed dried fruits and sprinkled with powdered sugar). We ordered the pistachio bread off a recommendation Erin had read in that same article. It was so good I wanted to eat the entire thing myself! The bread was sweet enough to be a dessert, but I found that their entrees tended to be pretty spicy, so eating them with the sweet bread cut the heat a bit. I want to go back just to try all of the breads. I think I say that every single time I go out for Indian food. I’m in love even with the most basic naan.
As always, dinner with Erin and Cinnamon was great. I enjoy hanging out with the ladies and am very grateful we make the time to get together on a regular basis. Every single time, no matter what, we sit and talk and talk until the restaurant closes and we are forced to leave. We have to be some of the most well connected people online and we still find a million things to talk about when we meet up.
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Tags:Chicago·cinnamon·erin·indian·rogers park
Erin had a great idea to have a potluck dinner party that was recession themed. The challenge was to spend only $15 and to make a dish that would feed a family of 4 adults for at least 2 meals. I planned my meal and bought groceries but then last minute, on the day of the party, for a variety of reasons, Erin had to cancel. I made the recipe anyway and I thought I’d share it here in case anyone wants to make a super yummy, super cheap dinner!
I made Country Potatoes au Gratin and I have posted this recipe before, but I will repost it with the price of ingredients. A whole 13 x 9-inch pan (8 servings) of these potatoes only costs $8.06 to make, which is only about a buck per serving. Dallas and I ate these potatoes for several days, so it was a really low-cost meal for us every day that we had it.
Country Potatoes au Gratin
| 2 teaspoons butter |
$0.10 |
| 1 medium onion (about 5 1/2 ounces), thinly sliced |
$0.68 |
| 3 garlic cloves, minced |
$0.30 |
| 4 cups 2% reduced-fat milk |
$0.74 |
| 1 teaspoon salt |
- - |
| 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper |
- - |
| 3 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2/3 cup) |
$0.20 |
| 6 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese (1 1/2 cups), divided |
$1.90 |
| 6 ounces diced ham (about 1 1/4 cups) |
$2.05 |
| 3 pounds peeled baking potatoes, cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices |
$2.09 |
| Cooking spray |
- - |
| Total |
$8.06 |
Preheat oven to 350°.
Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Combine milk, salt, pepper, and flour, stirring with a whisk. Add milk mixture to pan. Bring to a simmer; cook until slightly thick (about 2 minutes), stirring frequently. Add 4 ounces cheese and ham, stirring until cheese melts. Stir in potatoes.
Place the potato mixture in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle potato mixture with remaining 2 ounces of cheese. Cover with foil coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 30 minutes or until lightly browned and potatoes are tender. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.
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Tags:Chicago·cooking and baking·country potatoes au gratin·erin·logan square
