White asparagus soup with prosciutto chip, crispy asparagus tips, chive blossoms and truffle oil

I started off our dinner menu with a white asparagus soup. Asparagus is in season and the chives in the local garden were blossoming, so I wanted to come up with a dish that would take advantage of this. I really like how the white soup acts as a blank canvas for the garnishes. It really makes all the individuals pop. It tastes pretty good. The only thing I would change about this dish is the cooking liquid. I had to use chicken stock, but I would have really preferred a crab or lobster stock. I just wasn't able to find any shells to make a good stock with.

In previous dinner parties, I've had issues getting everything done on the timeline I was shooting for and pacing dishes so that they were served at the right time/temperature. This time around, I decided to do a lot of things at the last minute so they would come to the table fresh. To make that work, I had to act more like I was in a restaurant and get all my mis-en-place taken care of ahead of time. Garnishes for the soup are above, and the assembly line is below.

Here's the recipe.

INGREDIENTS

2 bunches white asparagus

1 leek

1 small potato

1 bay leaf

Stock

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 T butter

Various garnishes

Cut off the white part of the leek, cut it in half and thinly slice. Cook in a pot with the butter over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes. Break of the tough ends of the asparagus and chop into 1 to 2 inch sections. Add to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 2 to 3 minutes. Peel the potato, dice, and add that to the pot along with enough stock to cover everything by about 1 inch. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add the bay leaf and let simmer for about 1 hour, until the asparagus is tender. Remove the bay leaf and puree the soup with an immersion blender. Stir in the heavy cream and season with salt and pepper. The quality of the soup will depend a lot on the stock that you use, and if it tastes a little thin, you can try adding more butter or cream, but keep in mind that the garnishes will add a lot of flavor.

The soup is best if you make it a day ahead of time and let the flavors mix. This makes it a great dinner party dish since it is one less thing you can do the day of. Reheat, serve, and garnish with what ever you like. I used crispy asparagus tips that I had reserved from the asparagus salad, prosciutto chips, chives and chive blossoms, and a few drops of truffle oil.

Garnishes:

Crispy asparagus tips - Just toss with olive oil and a bit of kosher salt and roast at a very low heat (180-200F) for about 2 hours. They get nice and crispy and take on a very meaty flavor.

Prosciutto chip - Cook in a very hot pan with a small amount of oil for about 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side. The prosciutto will still feel flimsy when you remove it, but it will crisp up once you let it sit on a cooling rack.

Cold weather food

We're in the dead of winter here in Chicago, and while it hasn't been that bad, it's still cold enough to warrant some good, cold weather comfort food. So, last week, a few friends came over and we all put together a nice winter meal of leg of lamb, polenta with broccoli raab, pine nuts, and sundried tomatoes, roasted root vegetables, cahldo verde, some berries with balsamic vinegar and mascarpone whipped cream for dessert, and plenty of wine. This dinner party also gave Abby a chance to test out a camera lens that she's borrowing from our friend, Archie.

We started with a some of Mike's cahldo verde, a Portuguese soup with potatoes, kale, and chorizo or linguica. Here's the chorizo, served on the side.

and here's the soup.

I was thinking of just roasting the leg of lamb, but the butcher I got it from butchered the leg so poorly that I decided to go for a braise instead. Here's the braising vessel, our dutch oven, sealed off to keep everything inside during the cooking process.

And here's what the lamb looked like after a good sear (~8 minutes on medium high heat) and 7 to 8 hours in the oven at 275.

You can strain and degrease the braising liquids, reduce it a bit, and serve it with the lamb. Polenta is a great accompaniment for braised dishes since it soaks up all of the braising liquid.

Mike also whipped up a little brocolli raab dish to serve on top of the polenta,
and we also made some roasted root vegetables (celeriac, turnips, carrots, and parsnips).
Finally, here's a couple pics of the berry dessert that another one of our guests put together.

Chilled beet soup

This is a really simple, tasty recipe that would make a good starter for a summer meal.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 lb roasted beets
  
• 2 c unsweetened cranberrry juice
  
• 1 orange
  
• 1-2c greek yogurt
  
• salt, pepper
  

Roast the beats, peel and dice. Combine the beets with the cranberry juice, yogurt, and juice and zest from one orange. Blend together. You can add more beets or yogurt until you find the taste that you want. Season with salt and pepper, then strain through a fine mesh strainer to improve the texture. Chill in the fridge and garnish with mint and/or sour cream or mascarpone.

Chili

Chili is one of those dishes that has an infinite number of variations. Everyone has their own recipe. I tend to make chili a few times every fall/winter, and after several years of tweaking, I've more or less settled on a recipe that I like. You can cook up a big batch, and keep a bunch in your freezer for later. This soup, like most, tastes much better the next day.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2/4 lb pork loin chops, small dice
• 1.5 lb ground beef
• 1 28oz. can kidney beans
• 1 28 oz. can pink beans
• 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1 red bell pepper, small dice
• 1 green bell pepper, small dice
• 1 onion, small dice
• 1 jalapeno, minced
• 6-8 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 t oregano
• 3 T chili powder
• 1 T cumin
• 1 T paprika
• 1/2 - 1 t cayenne powder
• 2 t cinnamon
• salt, pepper
• 1 bottle dark beer
• beef stock or broth
• Optional ingredients:
• 1/2 small can chipotle en adobe
• Mexican chocolate, to taste. The amount I use comes out to about 3-4 T when chopped.

*This recipe is moderately spicy. If you really want to up the heat, just add more cayenne powder or throw in another jalapeno. If you don't like spicy food, leave out the jalapeno and just add 1/2 teaspoon cayenne.

It's easiest if you prep all of the ingredients ahead of time. Mix together the chili powder, cayenne, cumin, cinnamon, and paprika and toast them in a pan. This step enhances the flavor of the spices. In general, you should always toast spices before using them, but I think this is especially important for a dish like chili, which is really built on the spices.
Once all your ingredients are together, heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot and cook the ground beef.
Remove the beef once it looks done and add the onions and garlic. Cook over medium heat until soft, then add the peppers, spices, oregano, pork and tomatoes. Cook for about 1-2 minutes.
Add the beans, a bottle of beer, the bay leaves and, if you are using, the chipotle en adobo and/or the chocolate. Add beef stock until everything is covered and you have the amount of liquid you want. Since the beans will release some starch, this will naturally thicken over time.
Let the chili simmer for at least an hour.

Clam and white bean soup with chorizo

Here's a fairly simple dish that I came up with last night. The dish is, I think, a Portuguese preparation. At least, the main ingredients are all commonly found in Portuguese cooking. I found that the broth was a little thin for my taste, so next time I make it I'll play around with the seasoning a little more. Below, I listed the ingredients that I used, but if you make this, I would suggest trying ways to improve the broth. I listed a couple suggestions.

Depending on how long you let things simmer, this meal should take only about 45 minutes to make. I served it with baguette toasts and side of greens the had been braised with garlic, chicken stock, red pepper flakes, and cider vinegar.

INGREDIENTS (2-3 servings)
2 lb clams
2 14oz. cans of white beans.
1/2 lb chorizo, diced
1 small onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
4-6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 small bottle clam juice
1/4 cup white wine
olive oil
red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper to taste
parsley or cilantro for garnish

Start by cooking the onions, garlic, carrot and chorizo with 1 Tbsp olive oil a pinch of salt and red pepper flakes over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add a splash of white wine and turn the heat up to high to reduce the wine. Let the wine reduce for about a minute then add the clam juice. Add another 2 cups of water, the beans, and bring everything to a boil. Turn the heat back down to medium and let everything simmer together for a while. It can be as little as 10 minutes or as long as an hour. The more time you let this cook, the more the flavors will blend together. As this mixture is simmering, you can start seasoning. You can add a bay leaf and/or a few sprigs of thyme to add some depth to the flavor. Add salt and pepper a little bit at a time, and keep tasting the broth until you like the taste.

As I mentioned above, the broth was a little thin. Perhaps it just needed more time, but replacing the water/clam juice mixture with seafood or chicken stock might have improved things. The right amount of salt and pepper did help out a lot, but it didn't get it all the way there.

Once you are about ready for dinner, throw in the clams and let cook, covered, until the clams open up (around 5 to 8 minutes). Garnish with parsley and lemon juice.

Beet soup

Wrap beets in foil and roast at 350F for 1 hour. Let cool, then peel and cut into chunks.
While the beets are cooling, cook roughly chopped red onion and ginger with butter and salt in a medium pan. I used 1 half of an onion and 1/2" of ginger for 8 small beets (about the size of a new potato). When the onions have softened (5 minutes), add the beets and enough chicken or vegetable stock to cover everything by almost an inch. Add part of an orange peel to the mixture and let simmer for about 30 minutes. Remove the orange peel and puree the mixture. Season to taste with coriander, orange juice and lemon juice. For the garnish, mix together soft goat cheese with a bit of sour cream in a food processor. For a more refined version of this soup, pass the pureed soup through a strainer a couple times. This will make the finished product thinner and smoother.

Use the whole bird

Since their are just two of us in the house, I can usually stretch at least two meals out of one chicken. The nice thing about getting the bird whole is that you can save stuff like the wing tips and backbone in your freezer and use it to make a good chicken broth. From the rest of the chicken, you get two main cuts, the breast and the leg. With practice, breaking down the chicken is really simple. I'll post something about that later.
For the first dish, I used a Frenched chicken breast. This just means that I left the first joint from the wing in. This dish is pan roasted chicken breast with garlic confit and ras-al-hanout on a bed of garlic roasted chickpeas and braised escarole. I start by mashing the garlic confit into a paste, adding some salt and pepper, and spreading this around under the skin. Then I added some ras-al-hanout, a Moroccan spice mix that is generally used in tagines, to season the chicken, seared the chicken breast side down, with olive oil over high heat. Keep an eye on the chicken, and after about two minutes, start trying to move the chicken. After a while, the skin will stop sticking (use a non-stick pan if you want to good color). When it gets to this point, flip the chicken over and stick the pan in the oven. Cook at 350F until done (about 20 minutes). For the escarole, simply cook a head of escarole with some chicken stock until wilted. If you want to add some garlic flavor, you can start by frying a clove of minced garlic in a saute pan with some olive oil, then start adding the escarole bunch by bunch. Once everything is cooked down a little, add a bit of chicken stock and season with salt and pepper. For the chickpeas, drain well, spread out on a foil lined baking sheet, and toss with olive oil, minced garlic, salt, and pepper. Cook with the chicken.
I also made a batch of minted carrot soup. This recipe comes from the Herb Farm cookbook...I don't remember the exact recipe off hand, but what I really liked about it was the mint flavor was added. Instead of chopping up some mint and adding it to the soup, this recipe calls for making mint tea out of a bunch of mint and then using that as the base liquid for the soup. Pretty clever. Sometimes I do a similar thing when I make what I call my "Asian Risotto." I'll write an entry about this later, but basically, I replace the stock from normal risotto with green tea and trade out arborio rice for sushi rice. It makes a good base for a simmered fish dish.

After making this meal, I had the legs left over, which I used to make Basque Chicken served over a bed of saffron rice. I already have an entry with the recipe here.

Ginger Chicken Soup: Cures What Ails You

This is the perfect thing to eat when you're dealing with one of those horrible winter colds. Chicken soup has always been thought of as one of those cure-all dishes, but this version has loads of ginger and a little bit of spice. It really clears your head out.

INGREDIENTS:
2-3 cloves garlic, sliced.
~1/3 cup ginger cut into matchsticks
2 serrano peppers, chopped (seed them and cut out the inner membrane to reduce the heat)
2 stalks bok-choy
1/2 cup (or more) of chopped cilantro
2 scallions
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
chicken stock (not broth)
fish oil
rice

First, get the rice started and stick the chicken in the freezer before you start preparing everything else. Chop up the ginger, cilantro, bok choy, and serrano as shown below.

Slice up the garlic and cook in a couple tablespoons of oil until golden. Remove the garlic and cook the ginger in the garlic oil for a minute.
Add the peppers, cilantro, and bok choy, cook for a few minutes, add the stock and bring it to a simmer. I've tried substituting chicken broth instead of stock, but it doesn't work.

Take the chicken out of the freezer and very thinly slice it - sticking it into the freezer makes it easier to get thin slices of chicken. After this cooks for a couple of minutes, add a couple dashes of fish oil. Add the soup to bowls with the cooked rice and garnish with thinly sliced scallions.

Weekend at the Cape

Normally, birthdays entail a late night out in some place like Central Square, but Jon took things a step further this year and organized a weekend retreat to Cape Cod. Evidently, surfing in the U.S. is not just a West Coast OR summer thing. There were quite a few people braving the cold November waters off of the Cape.
Jon was very excited to get out of the city.So, excited, in fact, that he was stuck in a permanent victory double fist pump, or whatever you want to call that pose, for most of the weekend. Here we are, several hours later, at dinner....still excited to be here.
Dinner was a big batch of seafood stew using all of the best products that the Cape had to offer.

Mesa menu

I often buy cookbooks, look at them, and, at most, cook one or two recipes from them. That's not to say that they are useless. They do, after all, provide a lot of great ideas, but still, it would be nice to use them a bit more. So, when I got my latest cookbook, the Mesa Grill cookbook, I figured a dinner party would be a nice way to knock out a lot of recipes at once. I was able to make an appetizer (corn pancakes with mango serrano crema), a soup (pumpkin soup with chipotle), an entree (spice rubbed pork tenderloin with bourbon ancho sauce and a smoky red pepper sauce), and a dessert (molten chocolate cake with dulce de leche). I also added a couple things of my own: an apple and manchego salad, cheddar and jalapeno polenta, and spicy garlic kale. Here are some pictures of the food.






A dinner party would not be complete without great company, and Eliana, Sebastian, Jon, Katrina (first picture below), Suzanna, William, Melissa, and Dino (second picture below), ably filled that role (they also all did a great job of bring some great wine to the table).

Black beans

When Abby and I were visiting Costa Rica, I got hooked on their traditional breakfast: gallo pinto with eggs and Salsa Lizano, a tangy green sauce that Costa Ricans put on just about everything. Gallo pinto is really just beans and rice with a few other random things mixed in. Its a great way to get rid of bell peppers, carrots, and onions that may be sitting around the fridge. You can make up a big batch of it and just scoop out a bit and reheat it while you are cooking an egg to make a nice filling breakfast. It's really good served with warm corn tortillas, and if you can get your hands on some Salsa Lizano, use this as well.

Yesterday, I planned on making a batch of gallo pinto, but when I tasted the beans, they were so good that I decided not to mix them with rice. For breakfast, I just had black beans with a poached egg. Here's the recipe:

2 large cans black beans
½ onion (red of Vidalia), fine dice
1 green or red bell pepper, fine dice
1 carrot, fine dice
1-2 jalapeno, fine dice
5 cloves garlic, mince
3-4 Tbsp chopped parsley (substituting cilantro if available)
0.5 lb chorizo
4 Tbsp cider vinegar
1 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
¾ can of water
olive oil

Add enough oil to the bottom of a large pot. Cook the onion, pepper, jalapeno, carrot, garlic, and parsley over med-low to low heat for about 10 min. Add a pinch of salt to help everything cook down.

Add chorizo and cook over med-low heat for another 10 minutes.

Add the beans. Do not rinse or drain. Add water, vinegar, and bay leaves. Let simmer on med-low heat for 1 hour so the liquid reduces.

Serve over rice or as is. You can reduce the liquid more or less depending on whether you want a soup.

If you are vegetarian, leave out the chorizo, but add some paparika. Even better, you might be able to find veggie chorizo at the grocery store. I think Smart Food or one of those companies makes this.

This is great as a soup topped with caramelized onions and sour cream. Since I made up such a large batch, I did this for dinner (I didn't have any sour cream though). To caramelize onions, just slice them up and cook over low heat with a bit of oil or butter for a long long time (~45 min). They cook down quite a bit.

Here, I used a red onion because that was all that I had in the pantry, but I really think a Vidalia or some other sweet white onion is better for caramelizing.

Gazpacho

I love good tomatoes. It's hard to get good tomatoes where I grew up in Washington state, but, fortunately, you can get some great tomatoes in Boston. It was a hot day, and the first batch of heirloom tomatoes had just arrived at the store, so I decided to make gazpacho with seared scallops for dinner. Here's the finished product.

The recipe comes from a Bobby Flay cookbook. It includes all of the veggies pictured above, diced really small. Use only half of the onion, and put half of the tomatoes and one cucumber in a blender with 6 slices of good white bread and a couple of cups of tomato juice. Add the diced vegetables to the puree along with olive oil (a couple tablespoons), red wine vinegar (~1/4 cup), lime juice (2 limes), and salt and pepper to taste. I thought that this recipe was a bit heavy on the onions, so I would do one of two things next time: use half the amount of onions or soak the onions to take the bite out. Soaking the onions involves changing the water and squeezing moisture out of the onions about every 10 minutes. I also would have pureed more of the vegetables since I like a smoother gazpacho.
I served the Gazpacho with a Kim Crawford sauvignon blanc, which is a really great summer wine. Here's Andre, getting ready to dig in.

Soup and sandwiches

With the right additions, boxed soup can be pretty good. Abby and I enjoyed this quick lunch of boxed, tomato soup infused with thyme and garnished with parmesan cheese, parsley, and a hint of truffle oil. On the side is grilled cheese sandwich with some really great mustard that I picked up at Whole Foods the other day (Medocino Mustard's Seeds & Suds mustard, if your interested).