Update: Harvest Dinner in Wicker Park
We served up our last Harvest dinner at an art gallery on Western Ave. near Wicker Park. It was our first time in the space, graciously hosted by Paul of Tangleweed. These local guys are super skilled and play a variety of acoustic Americana music. Their next performance is on Sunday at the Bucktown Apple Pie Contest. Definitely check them out and get some apple pie as a bonus.
Our menu this time featured the pear, specifically a variety my dad grows out in Geneva, IL. This variety is tart and starchy, and sort of crispy like an apple. We starting things off with a pear brunoise, roasted in sage butter, and served on crostini.
The salad consisted of a roasted pear with gorgonzola cheese, walnuts, baby greens, and edible nasturtiums and borage. For our empanada filling we used roasted spaghetti squash, goat cheese, caramelized onion, coriander, and fennel seed. I was not completely satisfied with our crust though. We have been experimenting with different styles of empanada crusts and are still searching. It’s definitely time to hit up some empanada joints around town in search of the perfect dough.
Our corn chowder was very well received. We first made a hearty stock with corn cobs, celery, smoked chicken bones, and fennel. We sauteed up some onion, baby fennel, celeriac, and fresh corn in some butter and softened everything up. Then we added our stock and let it all simmer ’til it popped. The soup was finished with a tomatillo cream, using an heirloom purple tomatillo variety.
And then there was pork. We started with 2 Duroc pork loins, opened them up and stuffed them with sliced pears and prosciutto, rubbed them down with a Guajillo chile rub and a bit of maple syrup. The braising liquid was used to make a sauce together with ground roasted pumpkin seeds and guajillo chile.
Pastry chef Stacey delivered an almond and pear tarta and the night was complete.
Special thanks to Robb J of soulcafe for bringing the cocktails.
Photos by Eric Barker
