The Perfect Porterhouse: Portion Your Love

Let's be honest, for Valentine's Day the important part is spending time with your loved ones.  So, even though you may want to cook a fabulous meal rather than going out to eat you want it to be spectacular and impressive yet fairly simple.  With this goal in mind, we decided upon a porterhouse steak for a meal that will turn heads and fill stomachs with just a little hands on cooking.  We're not saying you have to follow the traditional theme, but a porterhouse is pretty much a heart shape already, so why not indulge your love?

The easiest part of creating your Valentine's Dinner is that you can get everything  you need at Sunset Foods.  If you're like us, then you'll be requesting that the butcher cut you a three inch porterhouse.  Of course, he'll cut you any size that you desire and even give you recommendations on how to cook or season it if you aren't certain.

The best part about Sunset Foods is that their staff goes out of their way to help you. They will help you pick out anything you need for a fabulous dinner.  The bonus part is that their meal of the week plan can help you with the work.  If you don't want to do all the work, then you can pick out parts or all of your dinner meal.  Their Valentine's Day menu includes asparagus and chocolate dipped strawberries.  That certainly seems as a great pairing with our porterhouse and garlic mash.

The porterhouse is best cooked by searing the outside and then low and slow in the oven.  This ensures that you can quickly prepare your main course and not need to worry about it.  The only thing you have to do is wait for that delicious porterhouse to reach temperature in your oven.  All the while entertaining your loved ones with the smells of a steakhouse in your kitchen.  With a few sides, you have a full meal and you can even cook those ahead of time if you so desired.

While you're there, you can even get a flower arrangement to go along with your meal.  The florist is more than happy to help you select the perfect bouquet for your special someone.  We picked out a single red rose to highlight our juicy steak dinner.  Unexpectedly the happiest member of our clan is the cat, who much enjoys the ribbon that came on our flower.  He says Valentine's Day will be happy indeed.

How To Make the Perfect Porterhouse

A 2 1/2-3 inch thick porterhouse steak
Kosher salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

Take your porterhouse out of the fridge about 20-30 minutes before you're ready to cook it.  Remove the porterhouse from packaging and pat it dry with paper towels on all sides.  Generously cover both sides with salt and pepper making sure to pat it on to the surface.  We're talking maybe 2 teaspoons of each per side.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.  You'll be tempted to trim some of the fat off your porterhouse, but don't.  That's where all the amazing tenderness and flavor comes from.

You can sear your porterhouse one of two ways; by grill or on a pan.  In a large skillet add 2 tablespoons olive oil and heat on high until its smoking.  Place your porterhouse in the hot pan and cook until seared on one side, about a minute.  Repeat with other side.  If your grill isn't frozen like mine was, heat your grill to high and oil the grates, sear for 5 minutes per side.

Move seared porterhouse to lined baking sheet and place in oven.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until thermometer reaches 110 degrees for a medium-rare porterhouse.  To take the temperature insert a thermometer into the side of the meat.  This will give you the most accurate temperature.

When porterhouse reaches 110 degrees, remove from oven and tent it with aluminum foil.  Allow to rest 10-15 minutes.  This will allow it to continue to cook and rise in temperature to 140 degrees.  When its rested, slice and serve.  Be prepared for it to melt in your mouth.

Garlic Mash Potatoes

2 lb potatoes
10 cloves garlic
5.3 oz. 2% milk fat plain Chobani Greek yogurt
4 tablespoons salted butter

Peel and cut potatoes into chunks.  Place in a medium pan, cover with water and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cover.  Let simmer 15-20 or until tender.  Drain potatoes and return to pot.

In a small saute pan, melt 2 tablespoons butter.  Mince garlic and saute until fragrant, 1-2 minutes.  Add to potatoes with remaining butter and Greek yogurt.  Using an electric mixer, beat potatoes until light and fluffy.  Serve.

Roasted Quinoa Stuffed Pork Loin

Being that winter has finally arrived in the Chicago area, I've been wanting to do a roast to get more in the holiday mood.  Specifically a rolled and stuffed pork loin filled with yummy things like quinoa, mushrooms and healthy greens roasted with some parsnips, potatoes and carrots.  A dish like this always means winter to me.  There's something comforting about pulling a roast out of the oven and knowing everyone will love it.  Stuffing it means that you have even less work to do while it cooks, because this is a dinner that will enhance itself as it cooks in the oven.  All the goodness of veggies and mushrooms and quinoa and wine to highlight the pork and when someone does the hard part for you, then it's smooth rolling in your kitchen.  

I just knew Sunset Foods would have everything I needed to make this amazing dish.  Including a butcher who will custom cut your meat for you!  I needed a 3 lb pork loin roast tri-fold cut, while this is something I could do myself having the butcher do it for me makes my life a lot easier.  In just a few minutes my roast was cut, packed up and ready to go.  I love that Sunset is willing to go the extra mile and custom cut meats on demand for customers.

For this particular recipe I also wanted a wine I could use in the gravy to enhance the dish and also serve with it.  The staff at Sunset foods is incredibly knowledgeable and after asking what I wanted to use it for, was able to recommend a 2012 De Loach Pinot Noir for my dish.  Since I primarily drink whites, I never would have come across this wine on my own.  It's also insanely reasonably priced at $9.99 a bottle!

Roasted Quinoa Stuffed Pork Loin

3 lb pork loin roast, tri-fold cut and pounded flat
1 lb parsnips, peeled and cut into 2-3 inch chunks
1 lb carrots, peeled and 1 grated for stuffing, with remaining cut into 2-3 inch chunks
28 oz mixed color potatoes
6 cloves garlic
1 inch piece of ginger
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 springs fresh thyme
2 tablespoons olive oil
12 oz quinoa, rinsed well
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1 lb button mushrooms, sliced

5 oz mixed power greens (kale, spinach and chard)
1 medium onion, 1 tablespoon minced remaining onion cut into chunks
2-4 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup water
2 large eggs, beaten
butchers twine 3-5 foot piece
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 cup DeLoach Pinot Noir

First start by making the herb paste to put on the outside of your roast.  In a food processor or strong blender, mix together the garlic, ginger, rosemary, thyme and 2 tablespoons olive oil.  Set aside.

Next make the quinoa.  In a large saucepan melt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter and cook onion until softened, about 5-6 minutes over med-low heat.  Once onion has softened, add grated carrot and cook 1-2 minutes.  Add quinoa, 2 cups chicken broth and 1/2 cup water bring to a boil reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.  Once quinoa is done move it to a large heatproof bowl to cool.

In a large skillet, melt remaining 2 tablespoons unsalted butter over medium heat.  Add mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally until they release their liquid.  Add power greens and cook until wilted.  Add this to your quinoa along with 2 beaten eggs.  Mix well to incorporate eggs and this will form your stuffing.

Heat oven to 450 degrees.  Before you start on your pork, in a large roasting pan combine your root veggies with 1 cup chicken broth and place in oven for 10 minutes.  The veggies take a bit longer than the pork to cook.

Now for the pork, taking a large piece of plastic wrap open up your pork on it with the fat side facing down.  Cover with another piece of plastic wrap and using a rubber mallet, beat pork until its more uniform in thickness, about 3/4-inch thick.  Remove top plastic wrap and spread with quinoa stuffing making sure to leave a 3/4-inch border.

Now comes the fun part, roll up the pork with the stuffing inside.  Tying it can be a little tricky and some stuffing will escape, but it will turn out fine.  Leaving a 3-4 inch tail, make a loop large enough to go around the roast.  Carefully slide under and around roast, tie twine fairly tight.  Go down about an inch further down the roast and holding that inch length on top, loop the rest of the twine under and around the pork to form a circle.  Tie this to the inch you were holding on top.  After doing this once it will go a lot faster.  Continue until you get to end of pork roast.  Taking remaining butchers twine and run under bottom of roast coming back up to your tail at the other end.  Tie both ends together and snip away excess.

Coat roast with herb paste and place on top of roasting veggies in the oven.  Continue to cook for 15 minutes at 450, then reduce heat to 325 and cook 30-45 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 145 degrees.

Remove pork from oven to rest for 10 minutes, tent with foil.

During last 10 minutes of roasting, place remaining stuffing in oven proof dish and bake for 20 minutes at 325 degrees.

After your pork is roasted, drain any accumulated juices and chicken broth from roasting pan into a small saucepan.  Mix cornstarch with pinot noir and add to saucepan after the broth mixture comes to a boil.  Cook until thickened.  Slice pork roast and serve with veggies, stuffing and pinot noir gravy.

Citrus Shrimp Fettuccine with Egg Sauce

There is one place we can always go when we want something good for dinner.  While we didn't pick up the What's for Dinner? which included Rosemary Salmon and Butternut Squash Risotto, something we'll keep in mind, we did find all the ingredients for our own recipe.  We fall into the same habits as I assume most of you do, making a marina sauce to go over pasta.  We wanted a change and so we took our usual pasta and altered our course towards the ocean.

We already know that Sunset Foods always has a miraculous large and freshly filled seafood counter.  While this time we didn't go for fish, we did pick out some tasty raw shrimp.  Sure there is a little work involved in cleaning them, but it's worth the flavors.  Especially when we procured some fresh produce to create a tasty marinade.  Our marinade kicked it up a notch to make our shrimp beyond delicious.  We went the egg sauce route to add richness without all of the calories of a traditional cream sauce.  The citrus also boosts the flavor while keeping it healthy.

The kale and mushrooms are a personal touch.  You could substitute them with any leafy green or even nuts of your choosing.  We like them best and so we knew it would seal the deal.  As we predicted the dish was a slam dunk.  The best part is that it was a one dish meal so we didn't need to cook anything else to go with it.

While this recipe has a lot of ingredients, don't let that intimidate you.  More than half of them are for the marinade and the rest of the dish is easy, peasy to throw together.  This ends up being a one dish meal, which are my favorite to make!

Citrus Shrimp Fettuccine With Egg Sauce
1 lb shrimp

1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
4-5 sprigs fresh parsley
1 bunch of fresh basil
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 one-inch piece ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil
8 oz bella mushrooms, sliced
1 pkg (5 oz.) kale
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup whole milk
3/4 cup grated parmesan
zest of 1 lime
1 pound fettuccine

In a blender or food processor combine: oregano, parsley, basil, olive oil, orange juice, lime juice, ginger, salt, pepper and garlic pulse to combine.  Toss with shrimp in a bowl and marinade for 30 minutes.

When shrimp are ready, bring water to a boil and start cooking pasta.  In a large skillet over medium high heat add olive oil and mushrooms, cook mushrooms until they start to release their liquid; 5-6 minutes.  Drain shrimp and discard rest of marinade.  Add shrimp to skillet and cook, 2-3 minutes until they start to turn pink.  Add kale and cook until it wilts.  Remove from heat.

While all this is happening, trust me you'll have time in between, whisk together egg yolks, lime zest, milk and 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese in a medium bowl.

Here's where things come together.  Before you drain the pasta, reserve about 1 cup of the pasta water.  You'll need this to loosen the egg sauce if it gets too thick.  Drain the pasta and add it to the pot with the shrimp.  Pour in the egg sauce and toss until sauce thickens.  Don't worry about the raw egg, the heat from the pasta and shrimp will cook it.  Add a 1/2 cup of pasta water and toss, if it isn't saucy enough add more pasta water.  Serve immediately.

Salted Apple Sliver Cake

Around the holidays, we tend to go big.  Usually this  means a lot of work for the payoff of great flavors.  Yet, this time around we wanted to keep it a little simpler.  Certainly there are a few components to this dish, but altogether it is a cake with fruit filling and frosting.  Not too complicated when you break it down.  Of course, this time the flavor is not just impressive but the size as well.  We went big with three whole layers.  Let's just say when you cut a slice of this for your family they will be stunned. 

As for the ingredients well, it uses some of our favorite new creations.  With spiked apples, salted caramel and whipped frosting.  If you can make all of those things plus a cake, then you are certainly able to pull this off.  Over all we wanted to do something different for our fall treats.  We're used to the same variety of pies at this time of year.  So, we wanted to switch our focus on other fall flavors.  We traded in gourds for apples and the results are splendid.  The cake is definitely large, but it is also definitely disappearing at the same rate as any other.  Which is more impressive because it seems to be three times the size of a regular cake.

I picked up everything for this recipe at the Sunset Foods in Long Grove.  They truly have the most amazing selection of groceries.  I just knew they'd have all the ingredients.  That's the great thing about Sunset, I can easily find what I'm looking for in one trip.  Whereas if I'd shopped elsewhere, I'd have had to go to multiple stores.

I'd recommend making the caramel and apples the day before to make things easier on yourself.  I went with McIntosh apples for this recipe because to me they just taste like sweettarts.  If you use different baking apples, you'll need to taste and adjust the sugar as needed.

Also the cake should be refrigerated at least 1-2 hours before serving.  This will make it a lot easier to slice as the buttercream frosting will firm up nicely.

Salted Caramel Sauce
1 cup raw sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup heavy cream at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

In a medium saucepan, cook sugar until it starts to melt and then whisk continuously until it's melted.  Remove whisk and occasionally swirl pan until caramel reaches 345 degrees.  Whisk in butter, be careful because mixture will bubble up a lot.  When butter is fully incorporated, slowly whisk in cream and then whisk in salt.  Allow to cool to room temperature, pour in a jar and refrigerate until ready to use.

Spiked Apple Filling

8 (2 1/2 lbs)McIntosh apples, peeled and thinly sliced
5 tablespoons raw sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 ounces of your favorite whisky

In a large saute pan combing apples, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally until apples release their juices.  Meanwhile, whisk together cornstarch and lemon juice in a bowl.  When apples are juicy, slowly stir in cornstarch mixture and whisky allowing apples to cook until the juices have thickened.  Remove from heat and refrigerate until ready to use.

Three Layer Yellow Whisky Cake
4 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups raw sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla
4 large eggs at room temperature
1 3/4 cup buttermilk at room temperature
1/4 cup whisky

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, cut parchment circles to fit three 9-inch cake pans.  Grease cake pans and put parchment circles in the bottom of the pans.  Set aside.

Whisk together first four dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.  In a mixer, cream butter and sugar together until they are light and fluffy. 

A great tip to get your eggs warm faster, place them in a bowl and cover with warm water.  Change water at least once and your eggs will be ready in no time!

Add eggs one at time, mixing until incorporated then add vanilla and mix again.  After that alternate adding buttermilk and dry ingredients, mixing well after each addition.  You'll end up with a super thick cake batter.

Pour cake batter evenly into pans and bake for 20-25 minutes or until done when tested with a toothpick.  Cool in pans for 10 minutes and then cool on rack.

Salted Caramel Frosting
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 egg whites
12 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1/4 cup salted caramel sauce

Using a double boiler, make a slurry with the egg whites and sugar.  Whisk this over medium heat for about 6 to 8 minutes, mixture should be thick, white and opaque.  Remove from heat, scrape into mixing bowl and beat for 6 to 8 minutes until you have a shiny white meringue.

Beat in butter and continue to mix for 3 to 4 minutes.  Drizzle in caramel sauce and beat to incorporate.

Assembly

Place the first cake layer on a plate, top with 1/3 third of apples and top that with 1/3 of frosting.  Repeat with remaining two layers.  Once assembled, place in refrigerator until frosting has firmed up, 1 to 2 hours.  When ready, slice and serve.  Store remaining cake, covered in fridge.

Sunset Foods: A Love Letter

Dear Sunset Foods,

We were most pleased when we were introduced to your store.  There is a multitude of variety and at the highest quality.   Where else can you get fish that is caught on the same day?  You can even tell us when that fish was caught and by whom! Your excellence is something we like to call top shelf.

That is not to say that you only have high shelves in your store, as we duly noted you had the usual amount with varying heights.  Yet, those shelves are packed with delightful ingredients.  Be it your organic or gluten free products all arranged in one location so that we no longer have to hunt for them.  A whole wall in the produce section solely for organics!  Like a dream come true, we can swiftly pass down the aisles knowing that we can find anything we need.  You even had fresh squeezed orange juice with the provenance on full display.  Do you prefer oranges from Florida? Or perhaps from California? You are in luck as you will not be lead astray!

If you are overwhelmed by their staggering selection and are afraid to choose, then fear not! They are there to back you up with their prepared dinner menu Monday through Friday excluding Holidays.  Not only can you get an entire meal already cooked to perfection, but you can sample all of the components in the store!  Not that you have to purchase the entire meal they provide but you can pick and choose what you wish.  Be it a side dish, main course, wine or dessert that you seek, they will have one or more at their peak.  Their hot foods vary from fried chicken to pasta to Chinese to soup.   Their bakery is also putting out more fresh breads and goodies baked in the store.

Not only is this staff on hand to craft delightful tastes.  They also provide specialty services with their catering and cakes.  Where else could you find a three tier wedding cake for a hundred dollars? One that is made according to your desires!  Their breads are crusty or soft, whichever you prefer can be found in a glance.  Even their coffee cakes are made by hand!

Their salads are versatile premade in the deli.  Or you can venture to the salad bar to craft your own.  There is even an olive bar and one for trail mix.  You can create your own mixes from the fresh ingredients!  All of their foods are made on demand if you see something you want then they can make more! Nothing sitting out for hours in this store.  There meats and fish come raw or seasoned.  If you ask, they can even provide a recipe for what you want out of the case.  They even have aged beef for that steakhouse taste!

 Their own line of organic deli is delicious.  Their turkey is sourced from Michigan. Truly all their foods can be easily traced.  Most picked over the others for the quality and local origins.  The best part is that you can ask any of their staff and they will be able to tell you about the food you are purchasing.  No longer will you wonder where your food comes from.

There is a sandwich grill that can assemble your lunch.  Or perhaps you need assembly of a different sort, such as a gift basket! Well, you are in luck as they have a gift basket service at hand so you can share these foods with everyone.  They even have organic wines and craft beers.  Plus a florist to craft beautiful bouquets and arrangements.

If you prefer not to shop, then you can have everything delivered! Or you can even pick up your groceries! They'll put them in your car!  You can order online for delivery as well.  Truly there is no end to their customer service!

All we have left to say is that we can hardly believe what we have found!  A store with such selection!  The quality is beyond compare we almost wish we could live there! Or that they had an even closer store! We would gladly drive a great distance but hope for even more Sunset Foods to appear.  We know we certainly would shop there for all of our needs!

With much love and appreciation your newest loyal customers,

Alison and Susie