"Make this stew in early spring, on a day when the weather is chilly and damp. The spicy sauce will warm you right up."
My friend CK wanted to come visit this weekend from downstate (near St. Louis), and she wanted to see some of our other friends and go watch our softball team play Friday afternoon and two games Saturday. The weather forecast was for high temperatures in the mid-30s with a chance of snow and rain, so she said if the games got snowed out, we could watch basketball and I could fix soup. She added that she loves soup. I asked her what kind(s) she likes (and doesn't like), but then I said maybe it would be easier if we looked through my Soup cookbooks when she got here and picked something out then.
She arrived Friday afternoon, and that evening when we returned from dinner with some of our friends, she looked through The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy, and she was intrigued by a couple of the Christmas soups, but I encouraged her to look through Chapter 4: Primavera (Recipes for Spring) instead. She said it feels more like winter as cold as it is, so I suggested she look through the Spring soups and if she didn't find one she wanted to try, then she could look through the winter chapter (but not pick one with Christmas in the name). She found the perfect Spring stew for a chilly and damp day: Spezzatino Di Agnello E Patate (Lamb and Potato Stew). We read through the whole recipe (as I've learned to do) and added up how long we thought it would take to cook so we could plan our weekend activities accordingly. We were going to go grocery shopping for the ingredients Saturday morning so we'd have that done before the first softball game at noon. We decided to plan to eat around 7:00 Saturday evening, so we thought I should start cooking around 4:30. CK asked if I have a Dutch oven, in which the recipe said to make the stew, and I said I wasn't sure. I pulled out a big pot and asked if that's a Dutch oven, and she said no, it would be a heavy cast iron pot, which I said I didn't have, but I could go get one while we were out shopping for groceries.
This morning we went to Farm King and I bought a Lodge Dutch oven (which I was almost as excited to get as I was the dark green anti-gravity lawn chair I found on the way to the kitchen aisle on sale at an amazing discount!). We then went to the HyVee and started out in the produce aisle where I got celery, carrots, and Yukon gold yellow-fleshed potatoes. I realized I hadn't read closely enough to see that the garlic cloves were to be passed through a garlic press, which I don't have, but CK said I could get minced garlic instead. As I went to get canned whole tomatoes, I read the recipe more closely and it said they were to be "passed through a food mill fitted with the plate with medium-sized holes," which I don't have, so CK said to get diced tomatoes. I found diced Italian Style Tomatoes, and the recipe called for two cups, but the cans were each 14.5 oz. instead of 16, so CK said to get two cans and save the almost full can of unused tomatoes for another time. We went looking for oregano in the spice aisle (along with red pepper flakes, which we got), but then we realized it was supposed to be minced fresh oregano, so back to the produce/fresh herbs aisle we went to find that. The recipe called for minced fresh flat-leaf parsley, and I remembered I still had enough of that left from last weekend's Asparagus Soup, and CK said that should still be fresh enough to use. The recipe called for "boneless lamb stew meat (leg or shoulder), cut into 1-inch cubes," so we went to the meat counter to ask if they have lamb, and they pointed us to the case that has the packaged chicken breasts, pork, beef, etc. The only lamb we found was still on the bone, but the woman who worked at the meat counter (the Lamb Lady, as CK calls her) advised us it was more bone than it was meat. Then she showed us a 5-pound package of fresh boneless leg of lamb (which was full of fat and $8/pound), but we only needed two pounds, so she asked the butcher and he said he could trim the fat, cut the lamb into 1-in cubes, and package it in the 2-pounds we needed, which was great. The recipe said to serve "Italian Country Bread alongside," and after much debate, we settled on Savory Parmesan Rolls. Finally, the recipe called for a half a cup of dry white wine, so we stopped by the liquor store and picked out a Gallo Chardonnay which we thought would be good in the stew and for drinking while cooking and with the meal.
After a full day of fun activities (including a brief and VERY chilly stop at the softball game to cheer on our team), we returned to my house at 4:00 and began preparing the veggies and meat. As I arranged the lamb cubes on the bottom of my new Dutch oven to sear them in olive oil, I commented that I've never seared lamb before, and CK asked, "Have you ever seared ANYTHING before?" Well, now that you mention it, I can't say I have. CK watched a basketball game while I fixed the stew, though she offered to help and did peel the yellow potatoes, bake the bread with olive oil, butter and garlic drizzled on it, and offered helpful tips throughout the process. Everything went very smoothly, except that I burned my left index finger and thumb three times trying to take the lid off the Dutch oven without a potholder (I'm a slow learner).
The stew and bread were ready at about 6:15, so we had an earlier dinner than we had planned (which I'm pretty sure was a first in the history of "The Soup Diaries"). We sat down to eat and I held my breath and waited for CK to take the first bite and pronounce the verdict, which was that it was tasty, and she really liked it. I took a bite and was pleased to find it surprisingly delicious!
A couple of hours later, after the remaining stew had cooled and I went to put it in the refrigerator, I realized I had forgotten to add the parsley. I was soooooo disconcerted, but CK said no worries, just put a couple of leaves in the pot and they'll make the leftovers all the better, so that's what I did and am looking forward to yummy leftovers tomorrow. Just like the recipe said, this was the perfect soup for an early spring day when the weather was chilly and damp, and the spicy sauce warmed us right up!
"I like to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food."
~W.C. Fields
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Week 19: Spring has Sprung! Vellutata di Asparagi con Orzo Perlato (Cream of Asparagus Soup with Pearled Barley)
Makes 6 first-course servings
Today started out as a cloudy day, and the forecast was for clouds and rain, so I planned to have a productive day with some things I needed to get done in the house and for work, and I figured I'd go grocery shopping in the early afternoon and have plenty of time to make the soup. But by late morning, the sun was out and I decided to eat lunch out on the back deck and enjoy the sunshine and warm weather while it lasted before the clouds rolled in. I took the soup cookbook out to the deck and read through the entire recipe and made my grocery list. It sounded like it would take about an hour to make, so I planned to ride my bike to the store at 3:15 so I could be home by 4:15 and start cooking. I e-mailed CS to see if she preferred chicken or beef stock, and she said chicken, though either would be fine. It was still sunny and warm (70 degrees!) at 3:45, and I didn't want to go in but knew I had to get to the store, so I grabbed a couple of canvas grocery bags, put my saddlebags on the back of my bike, and off I went.
When I was in the produce aisle, I found the asparagus just fine, but that's as far as I got on my own. The nice young man stocking the shelves asked if he could help me find anything, and I said yes: spring onions ("not scallions, but rather young bulb onions still attached to their bulbs") or leeks, a fennel bulb, and pearled barley. He showed me the leeks, but he was stumped about the spring onions and barley. He went in the back and asked someone and found out the barley is in aisle 4, so he took me over there and we both looked high and low (neither of us knowing what we were looking for). Not finding anything that said pearled barley, he went and asked another guy who came and showed us where it was--right next to the chicken stock and broths, which I needed, too. (I was delighted to find low-sodium--which the recipe called for--and free range chicken, so I grabbed two boxes while I was there.) Turns out barley comes in a box and looks like oats--in fact, one of the brands is Quaker, and one of the options was "Quick" (cooks in 10 min.). Knowing I'd gotten a later start that I'd planned, Quick it was. Back to the produce aisle I went to get fresh flat-leaf parsley. I found parsley right away, but there were different kinds, and they weren't clearly marked. Fortunately, my friend AC was standing right there, and I know she cooks, so I asked her and she showed me which was the flat-leaf parsley. Next: freshly grated pecorino romano cheese. I found several kinds of romano cheese, including shredded (but not grated), but nothing that said "pecorino." After stewing for far too long, I settled on a wedge of Casaro Romano Cheese ("Wisconsin Quality with Italian Tradition") and figured I could grate it myself with my (still somewhat new) box grater. I couldn't find anything that said "country bread" in the bakery, so I decided Focaccia Asiago bread would go well with my Italian soup. I picked up a few grocery items I needed other than for soup, then packed my bicycle saddlebags with all the groceries and rode home, stopping at my friend SR's house to pick up two boxes of Girl Scout Cookies I'd ordered from her daughter.
I got home at 5:00 and started cooking the barley and prepping the veggies right away, and I e-mailed CS to let her know my ETA was now 6:30 p.m. The recipe said to simmer the barley for 45 minutes, but as I started to set the timer, I suddenly remembered I'd bought "Quick" barley that was supposed to cook in 10 minutes. (Good thing I remembered that, because the recipe also said the barley "should not be mushy at all," and I'm sure it would have been had I simmered it for 45 minutes!) I trimmed off the tough ends from the asparagus and discarded them, according to the directions. I cut the asparagus stalks into 1-inch pieces and set aside the tips, as the recipe said. I sautéd the veggies, sprinkled and mixed in the flour, started to add the stock--oops, STOCK. In my excitement to find low-sodium and free-range chicken, I'd inadvertantly picked up broth instead of stock. I'd already decided not to take the time to make the Brodo di Pollo (Chicken Stock) from scratch this time, but I'd fully intended to buy stock. Oh, well. Next time I'll be sure to look more closely at the box and get the stock, but broth would have to do this time. I added the asparagus pieces-except for the reserved tips--and the parsley sprigs, increased the heat and let it simmer until all the veggies were tender, then removed from heat and let it cool for 10 minutes. Then, in a blender, working in batches, I pureéd the soup. I panicked for a minute, realizing I don't have a blender and not knowing if my food processer can be used as one, but then I remembered my Cooks 5-in-1 Power Blender (similar to the Magic Bullet, which I'd called my Magic Squisher), and it worked perfectly for working in batches as I filled the five cups with soup and pureéd them one at a time. After straining the soup to remove any tough fibers, I returned it to the pot and stirred in the cooked barley.
At this point, the recipe ended with "season to taste with salt and pepper." It said nothing about the 1 cup of freshly grated cheese, nor about the asparagus tips which it had said several times previously should be reserved (not discarded). I looked at the picture of the bowls of soup that accompanied the recipe, and there were what appeared to be a few asparagus tips and some grated cheese floating in the soup, so I dumped the tips in the pot of soup, grabbed the bread, cheese, my grater, and soup ladle, and off I went. As I pulled into the driveway, I looked at the clock in my car, and it said 6:21p.m.--the exact time of the Vernal Equinox. Soup's on! Well, almost. When I got in the house, the table was all set and a yummy salad ready to be served. I put the soup on the stove to heat it up a bit, and when MB saw the green soup, she said we should have had it a few days ago for St. Patrick's Day! I pulled out the bread and asked CS how you know what's to be done with it since it doesn't say anything on the package about cooking or warming it. She said it would be good warmed up, so she cut several slices and put them in the toaster oven while I grated the cheese. At 6:30, we were eating salad, and the bread and soup were ready shortly thereafter. We each had our fill and had enough left over for another meal later this week.
The verdict: "DE-LISH", "Yuuuuuummmmmm!!!!!!" and "VERY tasty"!
Yay!! Happy Spring!!!!!
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