Blue Cayenne

The ancient Egyptians ate it. The Romans, too. Roman Emperor Augustus even coined a catchy phrase: “as quick as boiled asparagus!” to describe a quick action. (Apparently, those Romans  really knew how to kid around, although “as quick as boiled asparagus” sounds to me more like something I would expect to come out of the mouth of Mel Brooks playing Emperor Augustus for laughs.)

The other day I was at Costco and saw a 2.25 pound bag of asparagus at a reasonable price.

Costco-sized packages of food are often too large for me to use. Does ANYONE really buy those enormous bags of potatoes they sell? But I digress.  In a wild moment, I tossed the bag of asparagus into my cart not knowing what I was going to make with it. Then I got lucky and found this wonderful asparagus soup recipe.

What could be more elegant than a bowl of cream of asparagus soup? Fortunately, elegance is within easy reach with this simple soup recipe. And, if you are pressed for time, the good news is that this soup can be prepared as quick as boiled asparagus!

This is my adaptation of a recipe that appeared in Gourmet Magazine in 2001. The link to the original recipe appears at the bottom of this page.

Recipe: Cream of Asparagus Soup

2 pounds green asparagus (I used the entire 2.25 pound bag from Costco)

1 large onion (chopped)

3 T. unsalted butter

6 C. vegetable broth

1/2 C. heavy cream

1/4 t. fresh lemon juice

Salt and Pepper to taste, more unsalted butter to stir in at the time of serving

Directions:
Chop asparagus into 1/2 inch pieces, reserving 12 asparagus tips for garnish.

Saute onion in butter in a heavy soup pot, stirring to keep it from burning. When onion is soft, stir in asparagus pieces and salt and pepper and continue to cook and stir for 5 minutes. Add broth and simmer 15-20 minutes until asparagus is tender. (I use vegetable broth powder from Mother’s Market but stores like Whole Foods and Sprouts also carry vegetable broth powder. Those stores also frequently carry a faux chicken broth powder that works just as well. I do not recommend that you use the canned vegetable broth from Trader Joe’s. I love TJ, but think their vegetable broth is too strong and overwhelms the natural flavor of the vegetables in delicate soups.)

Puree soup until it is smooth. Return pureed soup to the pan and stir in heavy cream. Add salt and pepper to taste, fresh lemon juice and more butter if you wish. Garnish with asparagus tips (boiled in water until tender). I sprinkled a bit of cayenne pepper on the soup at the time of serving. A little cayenne goes a long way, so be careful how much you sprinkle on your guests’ soup.

Here is the link to the original recipe:

Cream of Asparagus Soup

I’m not sure I know anyone who doesn’t crave a good plate of macaroni and cheese once in a while.  It is a true comfort food. Apparently, mac and cheese has been a comfort food for a very, very long time. Harold McGee, in his book On Food and Cooking, includes this quote from Boccaccio writing in The Decameron in the 14th Century:

“in a country called Bengodi…there was a mountain made entirely of grated Parmesan cheese, on which lived people who did nothing but make macaroni and ravioli and cook them in capon broth. And then they threw them down, and the more of them you took, the more you had. And  nearby ran a rivulet of white wine whose better was never drunk, and without a drop of water in it.”

Boccaccio, it seems, had pretty intense fantasies about macaroni pasta!

If you’re dreaming of mounds of gooey cheesy pasta on this day after Thanksgiving, here is my adaptation of a very good recipe.

Recipe:  Macaroni and Cheese

8 oz. macaroni pasta

3 T. butter

1/4 C. all-purpose flour

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. dry mustard

1/4 t. black pepper

1/8 t. smoked paprika plus additional for sprinkling on top

2 1/2 C. 2 % milk (I was out of milk and used 2 C. half and half and 1/2 C. water)

3 C. grated medium cheddar cheese

Sourdough croutons

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and butter a large baking dish. This recipe makes a generous six servings, so you will need a spacious dish in which to cook it.

Boil macaroni pasta until it is al dente. When the macaroni is cooked, drain it  in a colander and immediately run cold water over it to stop it from cooking. Return macaroni to the cooking pot and toss with a few pats of butter. Set aside until your sauce is prepared.

Melt butter in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat and add flour, salt, dry mustard, black pepper and 1/8 t. smoked paprika to the pan. Using a wooden spoon, stir constantly for about three minutes to cook the flour mixture. Whisk milk (or half-and-half and water) into the flour mixture in a thin stream. Whisk constantly for between 10-12 minutes until sauce is thick and smooth. Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in 2 C. grated cheese. Stir the cheese into the sauce until the cheese has melted into your white sauce.

Stir sauce into pasta until all the pasta is well-coated.

Put one half of the pasta mixture into your buttered baking pan. Top pasta with 1/2 of the remaining cheese. Spoon the rest of the pasta mixture on top of the cheese and, again, sprinkle with cheese.

Toss cubes of sourdough bread in butter and toast briefy in a pan. Top pasta with buttered sourdough croutons and sprinkle with a small amount of smoked paprika.

Bake 25-30 minutes at 375 degrees F. When it is done, the macaroni and cheese should have a pretty golden top and be bubbling hot. Cool macaroni and cheese for a few minutes and serve.

Here is the link to the original recipe posted on food site  Kitchen Treaty: The Best Macaroni and Cheese Recipe Ever

This is a recipe you might want to consider for your Thanksgiving table. It is pretty. It is different. It. Is. Delicious.

I’ve never roasted grapes before but I’m so glad I gave it a try. Roasted grapes, I found,  are absolutely wonderful. How is it possible that I missed this taste treat for all these years?  Now, I’m searching my mind for other ways I can use roasted grapes…other, of course, than the half cup of roasted grapes that I enjoyed one-by-one fresh from the oven. Also, I’ve  been kind of slow to incorporate goat cheese into my recipes but found the addition of a small amount of goat cheese to the mashed sweet potatoes in this dish to be pretty wonderful.

Recipe: Sweet Potatoes with Roasted Grapes, Goat Cheese and Honey

4 sweet potatoes

2 C. red, seedless grapes

1 t. grapeseed oil or canola

1/4 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

2 T honey (with extra to drizzle)

4 ounces goat cheese

Pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg

Directions:

Toss grapes in oil, sprinkle on a bit of salt and pepper and bake on a non-stick pan for 15-20 minutes at 450 degrees F.  Take grapes from the oven and let them cool.

Using a knife or the tines of a fork, poke a few holes in the sweet potatoes. Bake sweet potatoes (wrapped in aluminum foil)  in a medium oven until soft (about an hour). When sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, make a slit down the center of each sweet potato and scoop the soft sweet potato flesh out of the skins. Using a fork,  whip sweet potatoes with goat cheese to mix. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, honey and salt and pepper to the mixture. Scoop sweet potato mixture into a pastry bag (or cake decorating bag)  fixed with a decorative tip and squeeze a rosette pattern onto each plate (or spoon the mixture back into sweet potato skins).

You can reheat the sweet potatoes briefly in a microwave if necessary at the time of serving.

Sprinkle crumbled goat cheese and roasted grapes over the sweet potato mixture. Drizzle with honey.

This recipe appears on the How Sweet It Is food blog. Here is the link to the original recipe: Roasted Grape+Goat Cheese+Honey Stuffed Sweet Potatoes