Blue Cayenne

This is quite a good variation on traditional Caesar Salad Dressing, enriched as it is with a ripe oily Haas avocado. 

This recipe is based upon one that appears in America’s Test Kitchen’s The Complete Salad Cookbook. The cookbook is available through your local bookstore or on Amazon here.

Trying as I am to hand on to the last of the fall’s leafy produce, I paired this dressing with a beautiful head of red leaf lettuce I found this morning at my local farmers’ market, a generous handful of grated Parmesan, and a sprinkling of crunchy pepitas. 

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen. 

It’s cold. It is pouring rain. I have a @!%!! roof leak. 

I’m craving soup…again!

Here is a recipe from Joanne Chang’s Myers + Chang At Home cookbook. You can buy the cookbook through your local bookstore or on Amazon here. 

In the introduction to this recipe, Joanne Chang describes this soup as “one of the most indulgent soups you’ll ever eat.” That’s a “whoa!” for me; I can never resist a recipe with that kind of praise from the author, particularly a renowned chef like Chang.

Chang, the recipient of the 2016 James Beard award for Outstanding Baker,  is the founder of Boston’s Flour Bakeries (there are 9 of them). She has written a number of important cookbooks including Pastry Love and Flour. She and her restauranteur husband Christopher Myers are the owners of Myers + Chang, a popular “Asian-ish” (their description) Boston Restaurant.  Did I mention that she is a Harvard honors graduate in Applied Mathematics and Economics?

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen. 

NEVER saw a Purple Cow,

I never hope to see one;

But I can tell you, anyhow,

I’d rather see than be one.

–Gelett Burgess (1866-1951)

How about a purple soup?

Ever saw one of those?

Neither had I until I picked up a bright purple cauliflower at a recent Long Beach Farmers Market and used it in this Cauliflower Soup recipe. I never expected that it would keep its color through the cooking process but, to my surprise, I had a pretty lavender soup in my soup pot when the soup was ready to be served. Happy surprise!

Speaking of happy, it’s our birthday! (How’s that for a smooth segue?) 

Blue Cayenne is 10!

Little did we know ten years ago on October 8, 2015,  when we posted a recipe for Senegalese Bean Salad  and took a chance with our meagre tech skills,  that we would be cooking and photographing and writing ten years later. It’s been fun and frustrating. Most of all, it’s been educational. We’ve learned a lot about photography (thank you Al), web pages (thank you Nami), and cooking (thank you to the cookbook authors who have inspired and challenged us). (Here is a link to that first recipe if you want to see our first attempt at a post (or if you want to enjoy a great bean salad: https://bluecayenne.com/60.)

Most of all, thank you to those  of you who’ve read and supported our journey. Your encouragement has meant a lot. Really.

So, Juliet, my faithful Chief Quality Officer, and I are celebrating our 674th post (whew!)  with a this colorful soup. 

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.