Top Chef winner, Chicago restaurateur talks about her new cookbook

Quick! If you had the following ingredients in your kitchen — steaks, cucumbers, goat's milk and fish sauce — would you think to put them together, creating a dish called, for obvious reasons, Pan Roasted New York Steaks with Sautéed Cucumbers and Salted Goat Milk Caramel?

Probably not. But Stephanie Izard certainly would.

"I think of combinations while walking to work or when I am in the shower," says Izard. "Or some times when digging through the cooler. It is all about making a well balanced dish with something salty, something a little sweet, something nicely acidic, something crunchy, something refreshing -- so your whole mouth is happy. Often I taste a dish and just know something is missing, one piece of the puzzle. So I try to pinpoint what that is and find an ingredient to fill the void. Sometimes it goes well, sometimes not so much."

Izard is the winner of Bravo's "Top Chef" in 2008 and owner of Girl & The Goat, a trendy and popular Chicago restaurant. She also was recently named one of Food & Wine magazine's best new chefs of 2011.

Izard has used her knowledge and creativity to write "Girl in the Kitchen: How a Top Chef Cooks, Thinks, Shops, Eats and Drinks" with Heather Shouse (Chronicle Books 2011; $29.95), a cookbook that helps define how she comes to pair global ingredients to create her award-winning, often locally sourced dishes. She says it consists of a hodge-podge of favorite recipes from her first Chicago restaurant, Scylla, as well as various events and childhood memories.

"The book was written specifically for the home cook," says Izard, who wrote it during the year leading up to the opening of Girl & The Goat, retesting each recipe many times. "All of the recipes were tested in my home kitchen rather than in a restaurant setting to make sure they were simple to make at home and that sourcing the ingredients was easy as well. I also invited home cooking friends over to ask questions while I was cooking in case there were any techniques or ingredients that I needed to explain further in the book. So in the end, the book is filled with recipes, tips and tricks to make cooking at home simple while still showing my style of fun flavor combinations."

Always on the go, in the spring Izard is opening a lunch place called Little Goat and is already at work on a new cookbook — this one containing recipes and photos from Girl & The Goat's first year. 

Besides that, Izard is involved in several charities including Common Threads, which educates children about the importance of nutrition and physical well-being and fosters an appreciation of cultural diversity, and Share Our Strength, whose mission is to eliminate world in America by 2015.

Also taking up time and energy is, of course, an all encompassing interest in cuisine.

"I am always reading about various cultures and foods and changing my favorite flavors all of the time," says Izard, noting that it's hard to pinpoint favorites. "Though after a dinner I did on African cuisine, kitfo from Ethiopia became one of my go-to hors d'oeuvres."

Though Izard works with a myriad of ingredients, some exotic, she names kohlrabi as the most overlooked ingredient out there and says that her favorite salad on the menu at Girl & The Goat features kohlrabi along with fennel, Evalon — a hard goat cheese crafted by LaClare farms in Wisconsin which won the 2011 United States Championship Cheese Contest, toasted almonds and pears in a ginger dressing.

"Stephanie's food is a perfect example of Chicago's dining sensibility: local, farm-driven and witty without being overwrought," says Jennifer Olvera, a culinary travel and food writer and author of the best-selling "Food Lovers' Guide to Chicago." "Girl & the Goat is popular for good reason: it's polished, without being pretentious."

Tempura Asparagus with Olive Aioli

For the Olive Aioli (makes about 1 cup):

1 head garlic

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 cup blended oil (half olive oil, half vegetable oil)

1/2 cup chopped Niçoise or Kalamata olives

For the asparagus:

1 bunch (about 1 pound) pencil asparagus

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup corn starch

1-1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup cold soda water

About 1 cup canola or peanut oil

DIRECTIONS: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the head of garlic in half horizontally and place the two halves on aluminum foil, about the size of a piece of paper. Drizzle the tablespoon of olive oil over the garlic and then fold all four sides up and pinch together, making a pouch around the garlic. Put the garlic pouch in the oven and roasted for about 40 minutes, until the cloves are tender and slightly browned. Let the garlic cool and then pop the cloves out of the skin. Rub the cloves into a paste and transfer to a blender. Add the egg yolk, mustard, and lemon juice and pulse several times to combine the ingredients. With the blender running, add the oil in a slow, steady stream through the lid of the blender. Process until thick and smooth. Transfer to a small mixing bowl and fold in the chopped olives. Set aside or refrigerate until ready to use. To make the tempura batter, whisk together the flour, corn starch, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl. Add the soda water, whisking briskly to avoid lumps. Continue whisking until batter is smooth and just slightly thinner than pancake batter. Heat oil to 375 degrees in a wide Dutch oven or large sauté pan with high sides. Coat the asparagus in the tempura batter and fry in batches, 6-8 spears at a time, depending on the size of the pot. Take care to not overcrowd the oil with spears, which will drop the oil temperature, resulting in a soggy coating. Remove the fried spears to a paper towel and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Continue to coat in batter and fry the remainder of the bunch. Serve the tempura asparagus immediately with the olive aioli.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Manila Clam and Sausage Linguine with Horseradish Crème Fraîche

1/3 cup prepared horseradish

1/2 cup crème fraîche

6 strips bacon, cut into lardons

1/2 pound mild Italian pork sausage (about 2 links)

1/2 cup minced yellow or white onion (about 1 small onion)

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 cup minced fennel (about 1 baby bulb or half a medium bulb)

1/2 teaspoon sambal

1 tablespoon butter

1 heaping tablespoon minced shallot (1 medium shallot)

2 large garlic cloves, sliced

2 pounds (about 2 dozen) manila clams

1 cup dry white wine

1 pound linguine

Coarse salt

Freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS: Combine the horseradish and the crème fraîche in a small mixing bowl and set aside. Heat large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add in bacon and let render for five minutes. remove the casings from the sausage and add the meat to the pan in large chunks. Brown the chunks, cooking for about five minutes, stirring only occasionally. Add the onion, garlic and fennel and reduce the heat to medium. Sweat the vegetables with the browned sausage for another five minutes, until the onions and fennel are soft and fragrant. Stir in the sambal. remove the mixture from the heat and set aside. Drop the linguine in the boiling water and cook for seven to nine minutes, or until al dente. While the linguine cooks, put the butter in a Dutch oven or a large, wide saucepan over medium heat. when the butter is melted, add the shallot and garlic and sweat them for about a minute. Add the wine, bring the liquid to a simmer, add the clams and cover the pot with a tight fitting lid. Steam the clams for about five minutes, or until they have opened. Pour the clams and their cooking liquid into the pot with the sausage. Drain the linguine and transfer the hot pasta to the pot with the other ingredients. Pour the horseradish crème fraîche on top of the pasta, add the snap peas, and toss all of the ingredients together to combine and to coat the pasta with the cream sauce. Season with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper and add extra horseradish if you like.

Makes 4 servings.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Apple Butter, Rapini and Rosemary Vinaigrette

For the pork:

3 cloves garlic, minced

Leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme

1 teaspoon sambal (chili garlic sauce)

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 pork tenderloins, about 1 pound each

For the Apple Butter:

4 medium apples (about 2 pounds), peeled, cored, and sliced

3 tablespoons cider vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

1-1/2 cups water

Salt and pepper

For the rapini:

1 bunch rapini, tough ends of stems trimmed

3 bacon slices, cut into lardons

Salt and pepper

For the Rosemary Vinaigrette:

2 egg yolks

1/4 cup sherry vinegar

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon honey

1 cup canola or grape seed oil

4 tablespoons ground fresh rosemary (can be ground in a spice grinder)

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS: For the pork, combine garlic, thyme, sambal, and olive oil and rub the mixture all over the pork. Place the pork in a zip top bag or a glass bowl covered with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

To make the apple butter, combine apples, vinegar, sugar, and water in a nonreactive saucepot. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer until most of the water is gone and the apples are very tender, about 30 minutes. Transfer to a blender and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, adjusting seasoning to taste. The apple butter can be made up to three days in advance and reheated to serve. Make the rapini shortly before serving the pork. Fill a large saucepot with water seasoned well with salt, and bring to a boil. Add the rapini, return the water to a boil and cook until just tender. Transfer the rapini to an ice bath to stop cooking and drain. Just before serving, add the bacon to a large sauté pan and cook over medium heat until crispy. Add the rapini and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

For the Rosemary Vinaigrette, put the yolks, vinegar, mustard, and honey in a blender and pulse to combine. With the blender running, drizzle the oil in a slow steady stream through the hole in the blender lid and process until the mixture is thick. Add the rosemary, salt, and pepper. Adjust seasoning to taste and use immediately or refrigerate up to five days. (This recipe will make extra vinaigrette, which can be used on salads or other grilled proteins.)

To prepare the pork, preheat the grill to medium high. Season the pork tenderloins with salt and pepper and the grill them for about 8-10 minutes, rotating every couple of minutes, until just cooked through. Remove the cooked pork from the grill and let the meat rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Place a heaping spoonful of apple butter on each plate. Top with rapini. Slice the pork and fan over the rapini. Drizzle with vinaigrette and serve.

Makes 4 servings.

Braised Lamb Shanks with Curried Cauliflower and Grape Gremolata

Lamb:

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 lamb shanks

1 large onion, medium diced

3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1 cup dry red wine

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons Worcestershire

1/4 cup dry sherry

2 teaspoons toasted fennel seed

2 teaspoons yellow mustard seed

2 tablespoons tomato paste

5 cups dark chicken stock or veal or beef stock

Grape Gremolata

1 bunch grapes (8 grapes per person)

Zest of 1 lemon

Zest of half an orange

1/4 loosely packed mint, chiffonade

1/2 cup loosely packed basil, chiffonade

2 tablespoons olive oil

Curried Cauliflower

1 head cauliflower

3 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 garlic cloves, sliced

1 teaspoon hot curry

1/2 teaspoon yellow curry

Coarse salt

Freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the oil in a large roasting pan over high heat. Season the lamb shanks with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper. When the oil is very hot, add the shanks and brown on all sides. Remove the shanks to a plate and set aside. Reduce the heat to medium. Add the onions and sweat them for 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic, sautéing for about 30 seconds. Pour in a little of the wine to deglaze the pan, scraping the browned bits from the bottom as the liquid evaporates. Add the rest of the wine, the vinegar, Worcestershire, and the sherry and simmer to reduce by half. Add the tomato paste, stirring as it melts into the liquid. Return the shanks to the pan, add the toasted fennel and mustard seeds and stock, and cover the pan. Transfer to the oven and braise until very tender, 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Remove the shanks from the braising liquid and set aside. Strain the liquid and simmer to reduce by more than half for a rich sauce. Season the sauce to taste. Reduce the oven temperature to 275 degrees. Pull the grapes from the stems and place on a Silpat or wax paper on a cookie sheet. Roast until the grapes are shriveled but not completely dry, 30-45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool. Toss with lemon zest, orange zest, mint and basil, olive oil, salt and pepper. Cut the head of cauliflower in half and cut out most of the stem. Slice the florets into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Heat the butter and oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and shallots and sweat them for 1-2 minutes. Add the cauliflower and toss to coat with the butter and oil. Sauté until the cauliflower releases much of its liquid and begins to brown, 5 to 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to sauté for an additional 10 minutes, tossing often. Cook the florets until they are just tender. Add the curry powders, tossing to coat the florets, and season with salt and pepper. Reheat the lamb shanks and the sauce. Serve the lamb over the cauliflower and top with the sauce and gremolata.

Makes 4 servings.

SOURCE: Recipes are from "Girl in the Kitchen: How a Top Chef Cooks, Thinks, Shops, Eats and Drinks" by Stephanie Izard with Heather Shouse (Chronicle Books 2011; $29.95)