Cream of Asparagus Soup

I got this basic recipe from a Williams-Sonoma Soup & Stew recipe book that was given to me by one of my sisters on the occasion of my retirement in 2006. The authors said it can be used to make a variety of “Cream of …” soups (i.e., carrots, broccoli).

When I watched Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, Anne Burrelle pureed all the vegetables in her food blender. So that’s what I did instead of cooking the veggies in the pot. Result? It cooked faster.

Then, I watched Sunny Anderson in her show, Cooking for Real. Instead of crème fraiche, she just added a cup of sour cream to the finished soup.

I compromised between the Williams-Sonoma recipe below, Anne Burrelle’s technique, and Sunny Anderson’s alteration – did all my fine dicing and chopping in the food processor, and added in my own version of sour cream whisked well into whipping cream.

Ingredients

• BUTTER, 1 tablespoon
• OLIVE OIL, 2 tablespoons
• LEEKS, 2, white and light-green parts cleaned and finely chopped*
• ASPARAGUS, 1 pound, trimmed, peeled, cut into 2-inch strips; reserve the tips*
• RUSSET POTATO, 1, peeled, cut into 2-inch chunks*
• CHICKEN STOCK, 4 cups
• SALT
• WHITE PEPPER, freshly ground
• LEMON, juice of ½ lemon
• CRÈME FRAÎCHE*, 3 tablespoons

Directions

1. Melt the butter in the olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat.
2. Saute the leeks until softened (about 5 minutes).
3. Add the asparagus and potato, sauté until nicely coated and beginning to soften (about 3 minutes longer).
4. Add the stock and flavor with salt and white pepper to taste.
5. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, reduce to simmer, covered partially, until veggies are very tender (about 15 minutes).
6. In a separate saucepan, boil some water, then add in the lemon juice and the asparagus tips. Boil until crisp-tender and still bright green (about 3 minutes). Drain, set aside.
7. When the leek/asparagus/potatoes are tender, take the soup off the heat and puree with an immersion or regular blender, or with a food processor.
8. Adjust the seasoning.
9. Garnish in the soup bowl with a dollop of crème fraiche* and the asparagus tips.

* My Changes:

Instead of sautéing the leeks, asparagus and potato chunks until tender, I finely minced them in my food processor: First the leeks, which I then sautéed in the butter and olive oil; then the asparagus and potatoes together, which I added to the leeks and cooked for a few minutes before adding the chicken broth.

And, of course, I live in Hawaii, where I can never find any crème fraiche, so I made a substitute, adding 2 tablespoons of sour cream to ½ cup whipping cream and blending until smooth. Just wait a little bit and the cream will clot nicely.

Annette Funicello’s Peanut Butter Pork Chops

I once posted a request for pork chop recipes on the Food TV Network community discussion boards to try and improve my technique(s) for making pork chops. I had the usual problem – my pork chops were coming out too dry and/or too tough.

Among the dozens of recipes, suggestions and people posted in reply was this one. Annette Funicello, the darling Mouseketeer of the ‘50s (my favorite one), and star of the Beach Blanket teen beach movies.

So simple, so good.

Ingredients

• PORK CHOPS, 6
• ONION, 1 medium, finely chopped
• CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP, 1 can
• PEANUT BUTTER, ½ cup
• WATER, 2 cups 

Directions

1. Brown pork chops in oil; remove from pan.
2. Put peanut butter and soup in pan and heat, adding water gradually; stir until smooth.
3. Add pork chops back to pan and add onion; bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat and simmer 50 minutes.
5. Serve with rice.

Chinese Winter Melon Soup

For the chilly late-Fall and Winter nights coming up, may I recommend brewing up a big ol’ pot of Chinese winter melon soup. It’s as good a chicken soup and much, much tastier.

Plus, it’s easy to make.

Ingredients

• CHINESE WINTER MELON, 1, peeled, seeded, cut into 2-inch chunks
• WATER, 3 cups
• CHICKEN BROTH, 3 cups (or two cans)
• CHICKEN, 1 cup fresh or leftover, cut into small pieces
• FRESH GINGER, 1 3-inch piece, sliced into rounds or smashed
• COOKED HAM, ¼ cup chopped
• MUSHROOMS, 8 ounces sliced and sautéed, or 2 small cans
• GARLIC SALT, to taste
• GREEN ONIONS, chopped for garnish

Directions

1. In a large pot, bring the water and chicken broth to boiling.
2. Add in the chicken, fresh ginger, cooked ham, and mushrooms.
3. Bring back to a boil, then add in the Chinese winter melon and reduce to a simmer.
4. Cook until the melon is tender.
5. Add garlic salt to taste, and garnish with chopped green onions.
6. Serve hot in a bowl with steamed rice on the side.

Chicken Cacciatore 2

Here’s another version of chicken cacciatore, which is kind of based on Giada De Laurentis’ recipe, but altered somewhat because I didn’t have all the ingredients required in her and/or my original recipe.

I also didn’t have the fresh herbs Giada used, so I substituted dried. Plus, I added in some sliced calamata olives to give a deeper flavor dimension, and used white wine instead of red.

Ingredients

• CHICKEN PIECES, 6 to 10, skin-on, with bone
• FLOUR, ¼ cup
• GARLIC-FLAVORED OLIVE OIL, ¼ cup
• BUTTER, 2 tablespoons
• MUSHROOMS, 8 ounces, sliced
• ONION, 1 large, frenched
• GARLIC, 2 cloves, minced
• CALAMATA OLIVES, 12, pitted, sliced into 4 pieces each
• TOMATOES, diced, 1 14.5-oz. can, with juices
• THYME, dried, 1 teaspoons
• BAY LEAF, 1 or 2
• WHITE WINE, ½ cup (I used Chablis)
• GARLIC SALT and FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER 

Directions

1. Melt the butter in the olive oil in a large flat pan over medium heat.
2. Slowly sauté the mushrooms. Set aside.
3. Add in the garlic and cook gently until the onions are translucent. Set aside.
4. Dust the chicken in flour, shake off excess flour.
5. Brown the chicken pieces in the olive oil, remove and set aside.
6. Slowly sauté the onions, adding in the garlic after a few minutes, season with salt and pepper, cook until tender but not browned.
7. Add in the mushrooms, the onions and garlic, and the remaining ingredients into the pan.
8. Return the chicken to the pan.
9. Check the seasoning, cover and simmer for 40 minutes.
10. Remove the cover, and cook for another 5 minutes uncovered, until the sauce is thick.
11. Skim the excess fat, remove the bay leaves, and serve with pasta or rice.

Hawaiian-Style Oxtail Soup

 

The first time I had oxtail soup, I’d just returned to Hawaii after 10 years on the mainland, and was introduced to it by my mother-in-law, who owned a local-style restaurant in downtown Honolulu. She made it a point to tell me that the natural gelatin (which was copious) from the oxtails was good for one’s health.

 

It was delicious. One of my jobs (when I worked there on holidays and some weekends) was cutting the oxtails into vertebral segments. Once you knew how to do it, it was a snap.

After my in-laws closed their restaurant, I had to rely on other restaurants, with varying degrees of success. I never made it myself. Until now.

Determined to learn how, I did research, finding a basic recipe on the ‘Net, and adapting it to my own taste. You know what? It worked. I made my first pot recently and it was a resounding success. Uber-yummy. Most delicious.

This recipe serves eight hungry people, and here’s how I made it:

INGREDIENTS

• OXTAILS, 5 pounds, separated
• ORANGE ZEST, 1 orange (or, 1 strip of dried orange peel)
• STAR ANISE, 6 whole
• GINGER, 2 three-inch chunks, sliced thin lengthwise
• SALT, 2 or three tablespoons, to taste
• PEANUTS, ½ cup shelled, skinned, raw
• SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS, 8, soaked if dried, sliced into strips
• CHAI PO (Chinese preserved turnip), one lump, chopped up
• MUSTARD GREENS, 2 bunches fresh (about 6-7 cups loosely packed), coarsely chopped
• GREEN ONIONS, 2, chopped, for garnish
• GINGER (Again), finely grated, for garnish

 

DIRECTIONS

1. Fill a large pot halfway with water and bring to a boil. Add the oxtails and parboil for 30 minutes.
2. Drain the pot, rinse the oxtails with water, trim off any unwanted fat (I leave mine on, it adds to the flavor).
3. Return the oxtails to the pot and cover by an inch with cold water. Add the orange zest, star anise, ginger and salt.
4. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer, cover and simmer for an hour.
5. Add the peanuts, mushrooms, chai po, and a handful of the mustard greens.
6. Simmer for three additional hours (or longer), until the meal is fall-off-the-bone tender.
7. Skim off the liquid fat and test the seasoning. Add in the mustard greens, simmer for an additional couple of minutes until the greens are tender.
8. Serve with the garnishes.

(If you want to, let the soup cool and refrigerate overnight. The fat will congeal and can be removed easily. Just reheat to eat.)

Banana Nut Bread

This recipe is very easy to make. No mixing appliance is required, just a spatula, along with a 4x8 loaf pan, and a large mixing bowl. The result is a very tasty banana bread that’s a little on the dense side, just the way I like it, especially when slathered with lots of creamy butter.

The riper the bananas, the better. I use bananas that are so ripe their skins are black.

Ingredients

• BANANAS, 3 ripe, mashed
• BUTTER, 1/3 cup softened
• SUGAR, ¾ cup
• EGGS, 2 beaten
• VANILLA, 1 teaspoon
• WALNUTS, ½ cup, chopped
• BAKING SODA, 1 teaspoon
• SALT, 1 pinch
• FLOUR, all-purpose, 1½ cups

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together, add into the mashed bananas, in a large mixing bowl.
3. Mix in the eggs, vanilla and walnuts.
4. Mix in the baking soda and salt.
5. Mix in the flour.
6. Butter the inside of the loaf pan, fill with the banana batter and bake in the oven for 1 hour.
7. Allow to cool on a rack before removing from the loaf pan and slicing. Serve with lots of creamery butter.

Spiced Pecan Pumpkin Quick Bread

Last October, when the wife and I were browsing in the Ala Moana Center’s Williams-Sonoma store, I picked up a package of their Spiced Pecan Pumpkin Quick Bread mix, fully intending to put it together during the Fall holiday season.

Well, things being the way they are, I put it away in the cupboard and didn’t get to it until a month or so ago.

It's a snap to make. All you do is mix the contents of the package with a cup of water, two eggs and a stick of melted butter. Pour the batter into a greased muffin pan (or use paper muffin cups) and bake 20 to 30 minutes in a preheated 350-degree oven until a toothpick comes out clean and dry.

Make sure to rotate the pan so all the tops brown evenly.

Then, after removing them from the pan and cooling them off on a rack, slather cream-cheese frosting all over the top and decorated with some cute candy sprinkles.

The frosting consists of a stick of soft butter, a cup of soft cream cheese, a cup of powdered sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla. Combine the ingredients until smooth, and then ice the muffin tops with a butter knife or any other flat utensil.

 

I made 16 muffins with the mix, but you can make it as a loaf in a bread pan. Or, I guess, you can make cookies out of the mix.

Delicious!