Chicago Fare

Shopping for kitchen appliances for us is kind of like shopping for a new car.  We have those mixed feelings of anxiety and excitement that race through our mind…should we…do we really need it…. only its a mixer not a car.   We know the basics of what we’re looking for i.e. a KitchenAid Mixer, have read all the reviews, and even have a general color in mind.  The next step is simply making the trip to William Sonoma.  As we approach the store for the first time we peruse the shelves taking note of each make and model available.  Before an employee has a chance to pounce on our sale, we escape to review the information we have collected and compare with other KitchenAid dealers in the general area.  Then we form our consensus and decide to return to William Sonoma.  We select our model and color and check to see if we need any upgrades…  sausage stuffer, food grinder, citrus juicer?  We decide on a pasta roller set, complete our purchase and return home with the image of homemade pasta floating in our heads.

Pasta Beginnings

Now since we purchased a KitchenAid MIXER, one might think that you would want to use it to mix your dough.  However, George being the purist that he is insisted we make pasta the natural way by creating well inside 3.5 cups of flour and adding 4 eggs, a pinch of salt and some garlic powder.  The basic premise is that you use a fork and gradually incorporate the flour into the eggs forming a homogenous dough.  It seems easy enough, but required a bit more patience then George had expected.  Maybe it was because we did not use Semolina flour, but there appeared to be a moisture imbalance that made it quite difficult to roll into flat sheets.  We added a tablespoon of water which seemed to help.

We eventually incorporated all of the eggs into the dough and prepared our KitchenAid pasta roller attachment so that we could turn our dough into flat sheets of pasta similar to those used for lasagna.  We ran one sheet through each setting, until we reached the the correct width of pasta we desired.

Homemade Pasta Dough

With a long flat piece of dough resting over my arm we switched attachments to the spaghetti cutter and preceded to run the thin dough through the blades creating our very first homemade pasta.  Honestly, I was surprised at how easy it was to make pasta dough.  Sure it was a little messy with the flour well and eggs, but it took only about 20 minutes to prepare this dough and run it through the attachment.  The only difficulty for me was that I didn’t prepare a place to cut the long sheets of dough into smaller sheets.  Thus, when it was time to change the attachment to cut the pasta into spaghetti.  I was running around with a pasta dough sheet the length of a towel on my arm until G was able of change the attachment for me.

Our next step was putting the pasta to use in a Frutti Di Mare.

Flat Pasta Sheet into Spaghetti

We dropped the pasta into boiling water and checked a few noodles every couple of minutes until they reached al dente.  Fresh pasta cooks much faster then dry, and if you’re not careful you’ll end up with a pot full of mushy noodles.  We sweated some onions and garlic in olive oil for 5 minutes and added shrimp, mussels, clams and squid a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper.  After about 10 minutes as the clams began to open we added our pasta. Tossed everything together and a minute later filled our bowls and began to eat.

Note:  If you’re cooking for two, cut recipe in half as the amount of pasta we made would have fed four people!

Frutti di Mare

The Purple Pig

Chicago appears to be going hog-wild. I’m not sure at what point it became trendy to offer a variety of porkly options, but I’m going to guess Publican was the first Chicago restaurant to gain notoriety during this pork revolution. Next we heard whispers of Mado and subsequently, The Purple Pig. We ventured to The Purple Pig mid-week to meet a couple as intrigued as we were with the third little pig in the city.

The Atmosphere

Located on the Magnificent Mile we circled Michigan Avenue hoping to catch a glimpse of their sign from our Honda Civic. After about 10 minutes we found their sign, but unfortunately there was no parking or valet. We opted for a garage and made our way into The Purple Pig.  It was compact restaurant full of people grabbing a drink or small plates after work.  We were seated at a high communal table just right of the bar.  Communal dining is usually not my thing, there’s this fear I have… that some stranger is going to watch me battle a pork sausage right off my plate onto the ground or see a wayward noodle escape slowly from the crevice of my mouth… Perhaps it was our good company or the relaxed vibe, but on this occasion a potential dinner mishap didn’t cross my mind.

Fried Deviled Eggs

The Menu

I love when restaurants offer small plates.  Allowing me to sample a little of everything makes me extremely happy, as nothing is worse to me than the commitment of choosing a main course only to be let down by the first bite.   We ordered a few items at a time starting with the Shaved Brussel Sprouts with Pecorino Noce & Parmigiano Reggiano, Whipped Feta with Cucumbers, Deviled Egg with Arugula & Caper Berries.  The brussel sprouts were fairly unremarkable, except for the amount of salt brought to the mix from the pecorino cheese.  I think we’d pass next time on this dish due to my attempts for a low sodium diet.  The deep fried deviled egg was fantastic and something we had never had before. The crunchy exterior complimented the creamy interior.  We also tried The Mussels with Treviso, Serrano Chiles, Winter Citrus & Gaeta Olives,  Octopus with acini di pepe & Swiss Chard, Prawns a la Plancha, Milk Braised Pork Shoulder with Mashed Potatoes, and a Roasted Bone Marrow with Herbs smear.  I enjoyed everything, including the octopus which I usually avoid due to guilt of eating a creature I find so intelligent and cute.  We were also impressed with the tenderness and succulence of the milk braised pork shoulder, it was one of the better shoulders we have eaten to date.  The concept of marinating meat in milk seemed strange to me, but on further investigation this is a practice common in Italy.

Roasted Bone Marrow

However, the most memorable dish for me was the roasted bone marrow.  Not necessarily because I like bone marrow, in fact, I had never tried it, and since no one else at our table had either, we decided to be adventurous.  Trying to find words to describe the gelatinous mass I removed from the bone and smeared on some toasted bread has proven difficult for me.  There was no specific taste that overwelmed me, the best I can do is to describe it as buttery in taste, almost ghee-like in texture.  The overall experience with the marrow was interesting, but I don’t plan on preferentially seeking out bone marrow again based on taste alone.

Our Thoughts

We were pleasantly surprised with the reasonably priced, interesting and well executed food.  If we find a reason to return, we will definitely choose a taxi as our mode of transportation!

The Purple Pig |  500 N Michigan Ave Chicago, IL 60611 | (312) 464-1744 |