Asparagus and Leek Soup with Poached Egg

I love soup, particularly when the cooler weather comes calling. From early fall though late spring, it seems like I've always got some kind of soup simmering on the stove or tucked away in the refrigerator for a quick meal.

Much of the time, soup is a spur-of-the moment creation, based on what leftovers are available and what vegetables aren't reserved for other uses.

It's not that often that I make deliberate soup, where I start with a recipe and end up with exactly what I had planned. Nope. Most soups here are pretty haphazard.

Which is why I was interested in the book Soup Swap by Kathy Gunst. With book in hand, I could shop for ingredients and make purposeful soups.

The one I chose for the online book tour I'm participating in was an asparagus and leek soup. It intrigued me. I love potato leek soup, and I adore asparagus. It seemed like the perfect transitional soup, with asparagus still very available while the weather was just starting to turn cooler.

This recipe uses asparagus in three different ways. And then, to add some richness, it's served with a poached egg on top.

I'll admit that I didn't make this recipe exactly as written. I didn't weigh the asparagus, for example. And I used fried egg rather than the poached egg that was called for. I think fried eggs are easier, and it was my dinner, so I was fine with that.

This was a lovely light soup that is also rich because of the addition of the egg. Quite tasty. And although the instructions seem long, it's pretty simple. Now that I've made it once, I could make it again with barely a glance at the instructions. Or just wing it.

Asparagus and Leek Soup with Poached Egg
Adapted from Soup Swap by Kathy Gunst

2 1/2 pounds asparagus (I had 2 bunches, unweighed)
1 large leek
7 cups vegetable stock
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 scallions, trimmed, white and greed sections very thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest (I used lemon juice)
1 egg per serving

Cut the tips off the asparagus and set aside. Snap the stalks where they naturally break, or cut off the tough ends. Put the tough ends in a saucepan and set the tender part aside.

Cut off the tough green part of the leek and chop it roughly. Rinse off any dirt or grit. Put the dark green parts of the leek in the saucepan with the tough asparagus ends. Add the vegetable stock and bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Cover the pan and cook for 15 minutes.

Halve the tender remaining leek lengthwise - this should be just the tender pale green section and the white. Rinse it under cold water to get rid of any dirt or grit. Slice the leek crosswise into thin pieces.

Cut the middle part of the asparagus into pieces about an inch long.

Put 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a stockpot over medium heat. Add the tender leek slices and the chives along with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Add the asparagus pieces (those middle parts you cut; not the tips) and cook for another 5 minutes. Turn the heat to high, add the wine, and bring to a boil.

Strain the stock from the saucepan into the stockpot. Discard the tough leek pieces and asparagus ends and bring to a boil, then turn the heat to low. Cover the pot and cook for 30 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and let it cool for 5 minutes before blending it in batches in a blender. You could also use a stick blender or food processor. Blend until you have a smooth puree, then return the soup to the pot.

Heat the remaining 1/2 tablespoon (1 1/2 teaspoons) of olive oil in a skillet. Add the scallions and cook for 4 minutes, or until they are golden brown. Add the asparagus tips and lemon zest. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, or until the asparagus tips are almost tender.

Poach or fry one egg per serving of soup.

Ladle the soup into bowls, top with the egg, and garnish with some of the asparagus tips and scallions. Serve hot.

As part of the book tour, I received a copy of the book, a Chef's Choice Pronto Pro Diamond Hone knife sharpener, a Zeroll ladle, and a Zeroll slotted spoon.

Yogurt-Filled Crepes with Apple and Cranberry Compote and a #Giveaway

Crepes are so fun - thin little pancakes that you can do so much with. They can be sweet or they can be savory. They can be breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner or dessert.

They can be whatever you want them to be.

I didn't grow up eating crepes, and the first time I had them, they were cheese blintzes. I thought they were magical. I had no idea how easy they were to make.

Of course, it helps if you have a decent recipe and a good pan to work with.

One of my lucky readers WILL have a pan to work with, because I'm giving one away, courtesy of Anolon. They asked me to create a recipe, so you have that, too. My recipe is a yogurt-filled crepe topped with a seasonal apple-cranberry compote. Follow the link to find it on the Anolon website.

You want this recipe, particularly at this time of year when cranberries are so plentiful.

The beauty of these crepes is that they're so versatile. With a plain yogurt, they're a lovely lunch crepe. But if you use a flavored or sweetened yogurt, the crepes transform into a perfect breakfast or brunch crepe. Add some whipped cream or a dollop of ice cream, and these crepes would make a lovely dessert.

You could, of course, switch things around and fill the crepes with the compote and top it with yogurt, whipped cream, or ice cream, but the compote is so pretty, I thought it was a shame to hide it inside the crepe. It really wanted to be shown off.

If you have extra compote, I'm sure you'll find a use for it. And then you might want to make more. Because it's really really good.

As far as the pan, it's an Anolon 9.5 inch Advanced Bronze pan. It's a pleasure to use - light enough to be able to easily swirl the batter over and over and over while you're making a lot of crepes. And it's very nonstick. The crepes slide right out of the pan when they're done.

And ... shhhh ... the pan is also very useful for heating or reheating tortillas. And for reheating your crepes, too. I think you'll get a lot of use out of it. If you're the lucky winner who gets one.

Thanks to Anolon for sponsoring this post and for supplying the pan to the winner! The giveaway is now over.

Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls

I've made a lot of bread. A lot of sweet rolls. A lot of buns, rolls, bread sticks and flatbreads. Between my regular baking for personal use, baking for holidays or to bring to dinners or parties, and baking for my book and this blog, I'll bet that I've baked at least a thousand bread-like things.

Although I like the bread I bake better than most store-bought breads, I've gotten used to them. I don't think of them as all that amazing. Even cinnamon rolls. I like them. Sometimes I like them a lot. Still, they're just cinnamon rolls.

But once in a while, I come up with a bread recipe that's just ... ahhhh ... so good. Special. Different. That's how I felt about this one. The apples took these cinnamon rolls to a whole different place. Like apple pie and buttery cinnamon rolls all it one bite. These were sweet enough, but the apples brought some tartness as well. The cinnamon brought its richness and earthiness. They were just about perfect.

For those who like more sweetness, it's easy to drizzle this with a little icing - or a lot. Just mix powdered sugar with enough water to make it pourable, and you've got icing. Add a splash of vanilla, if you like, or leave it plain.

As far as the cinnamon, I received a large (very large!) bag of cinnamon from a company called Flavor of the Earth. They tout their Ceylon cinnamon as being healthier for you than other types of cinnamon. I don't know about that - you can look it up for yourself.

All I know is that if you use a lot of cinnamon, buying a 1-pound bulk bag is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying small jars of it. The cinnamon comes in a re-sealable plastic bag, and it's actually pretty sturdy. But I prefer other storage methods. I poured it into a quart canning jar. That's a LOT of cinnamon, right? And a pretty darned good bargain.

Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls

For the dough:
1 1/4 cups water
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 package) Red Star Platinum* yeast
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup buttermilk powder
1/2 cup instant mashed potato flakes
3 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature

For the filling:
1 cup sugar
1/2 stick unsalted butter
2 tablespoons cinnamon
Pinch of salt
4 cups diced apples (6 medium apples)
1 cup graham cracker crumbs

Plus:
1/2 stick butter for the pan

To make the dough:
Combine all of the dough ingredients (except the butter) in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. You could also knead by hand, but to be honest, trying to knead a whole stick of butter into the dough isn't a whole lot of fun by hand.

Add the butter and continue kneading until the butter is completely incorporated into the dough and it is smooth, shiny, and elastic.

Cover the bowl and set aside until the dough has doubled in size, about an hour.

While the dough is rising, make the filling. Combine the sugar, butter, cinnamon, salt, and apples in a heavy bottomed pan. Cook, stirring as needed, until the sauce has thickened to a syrup. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until needed.

Spray a 9x13 baking pan with baking spray. If you've got a pan with a cover, that's a plus. Cut the 1/2 stick of butter into pieces and scatter them on the bottom of the pan.

When the dough has doubled flour your work surface and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Turn out the dough and form it into a rough rectangle, then use a rolling pin to roll the dough to approximately 18x14 inches.

With one of the short ends facing you, sprinkle the graham cracker crumbs over the surface of the dough, leaving about an inch uncovered on the far end of the dough. Now, scatter the apples and sauce over the top of the graham crackers.

Starting with the short end closest to you, roll the dough, jellyroll-style, towards the far end. Don't roll tightly - keep it loose. Cut the roll into 12 even pieces, then arrange the pieces in the prepared baking pan, with cut sides up and down.

Cover the pan with plastic wrap and set aside to rise until the rolls have doubled in size, about 30 minutes. Or, if you prefer, cover the pan and refrigerate overnight, or up to 24 hours. The rolls will rise during their time in the refrigerator.

When the rolls have risen, remove the plastic wrap and bake at 325 degrees until the rolls are nicely browned, about 35 minutes. If you're baking refrigerated dough, add another 5 minutes to the baking time.

Remove the rolls from the pan and let them cool on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. Drizzle with powdered sugar icing, if desired.

*I suggest Red Star Platinum, but you can use your favorite yeast.

Disclaimer: I received the cinnamon from the manufacturer as a sample.

Slow Cooker Cheesy Southern Grits

I love grits more than a person should love such a plain, homey dish. Sometimes I even get fancy and call the dish polenta, instead. I like plain grits with a little butter, cheesy grits with extra cream, spicy grits with peppers, grits with mushrooms, tomatoes or herbs... and I like them served as a side, served as breakfast, or served under shrimp, stew or tomato sauce.

Yeah, pretty much any way.

So when I saw a recipe for creamy cheesy grits in the book The Southern Slow Cooker by Kendra Bailey Morris, I knew I had to give it a try. The idea of tossing grits into a slow cooker and letting them cook unattended is pretty appealing.

These grits are supposed to cook for 2-3 hours, but I jump started them a bit by starting them on a higher temperature. I've got a Ninja slow cooker, so it's got a few extra cooking settings that let me crank up the heat fir the beginning of the cooking. Then I turned it down to finish the cooking.

Since the Ninja's interior is nonstick, I didn't bother spraying it with cooking spray. If you've got a slow cooker that has a ceramic insert, maybe you should spray - I don't know if it helps, really. I'd think that it would mix in if you do any stirring. But I don't know. Maybe it's worth doing.

This book suggests adding the grits to the water and letting it sit for 5 minutes before cooking, then skimming off any floating bits of grits. I'd never done that before. Most recipes I have call for whisking grits into hot liquid, so that floaty stuff wouldn't be floating.

So, skim or don't - whatever you think is right.

Creamy Cheesy Grits
Adapted from The Southern Slow Cooker by Kendra Bailey Morris

1 cup chicken broth
3 cups water
1 cup stone ground (not instant) grits
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (plus more to taste)
1/4 cup cream, half-and-half, or milk
1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

Pour the chicken broth and water into your slow cooker, then whisk in the grits. Add the butter, salt, and pepper and cook on high until the grits are cooked to your liking - figure 2-3 hours.

Add the cream (or milk or half-and-half) and the cheese. Stir and cook another  5 or 10 minutes. If the grits are too thick for your liking, you can add more liquid. If you want them a little thicker, continue cooking with the lid off.

Almond Sweet Rolls (with a surprising ingredient)

Sometimes I have crazy ideas. And sometimes they even work. When I make sweet rolls, sometimes I add graham cracker crumbs to add body to the filling without adding a ton of sugar. This works particularly well for cinnamon rolls.


It also helps to keep the filling from oozing out of the bottom of the rolls and making a sticky mess on the bottom.

This time, I decided to try wheat germ instead of the graham crackers. Wheat germ isn't the fibery part of the wheat, it's actually the part of the wheat that sprouts and becomes the new wheat plant. To me, it has a slightly nutty flavor, which I thought would work really well with the almonds I put into these sweet rolls - they were sweet enough, slightly nutty, and with plenty of cinnamon.

Almond Sweet Rolls

For the bread dough:
1 cup water
1/4 cup honey
2 1/4 teaspoons Red Star Platinum yeast
3 cups (13 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup buttermilk powder
1/4 cup almond meal
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons unsalted butter

For the filling:
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup almond  meal
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Combine all of the ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer and knead until the dough is elastic. Cover the bowl and set aside until the dough has doubled in size, about an hour.

Meanwhile, combine the filling ingredients in a small bowl and set aside until needed.

When the dough has risen, flour your work surface and spray a 9x13 baking pan with baking spray.

Turn out the dough and form it into a rough square.

Use a rolling pin to roll the dough to a 16-inch square. It doesn't need to be exact - you can eyeball it.

Spread the filling onto the dough leaving about an inch uncovered on the far end. Use the rolling pin to press the filling into the dough a bit. You don't need to be aggressive about it - just press lightly.

Starting with the edge closest to you, roll the dough, jellyroll style, towards the far end. Don't roll too tightly. When you get to the far end, pinch to seal the seam.

Cut the dough roll into 12 equal slices and arrange the slices, with a cut side up, into the pan. If any of the filling has fallen out of the rolls, you can gather it up and sprinkle it on top of the rolls.

Cover the pan - my favorite 9x13 pan has its own snap-on plastic lid, but plastic wrap will do just fine.

Refrigerate the buns overnight or up to 24 hours (you can also let the dough rise until it has doubled - about 30 minutes or so, but the overnight rest is recommended - and it makes it easier to have fresh sweet rolls in the morning.)

When you're ready to bake, remove the sweet rolls from the refrigerator and heat the oven to 325 degrees. I like to give the oven 30 minutes to come to temperature.

Remove the cover from the pan and bake at 325 degrees until the buns are nicely browned, about 25 minutes.

Remove the buns from the pan and let them cool slightly on a rack.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

If you like, you can drizzle these with a powdered sugar icing, or just sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Disclaimer: The nice folks at Kretchmer's Wheat Germ sent me a jar of wheat germ, but I already had some in the pantry. It's a useful addition to baked goods, so I generally have some on hand.

Cat Boy Plum Jam

Guest Post - Charles Turnipseed

Charles is a prolific and amazing cook but his current passion is his cat rescue work. Please take some time to read his blog, Purrfect Cat Rescue.

I like most jams and preserves but when I was growing up I especially liked apricot jam, and plum jam—my grandmother’s and King Kelly’s. I have fond memories of both: King Kelly was jelly-thick, pale burgundy, and had the light, fresh taste of the fruit; Grandma’s was somehow both dense and soft, the color of garnets, with a flavor somewhere between plums and prunes, all the result of her cooking process.

I say process, but it was less scientific than that sounds. She’d toss plums and sugar in a pot, place it on the burner of her Wedgewood stove that had a “flame tamer” and go out in the garden. She’d prune, she’d rake, she’d transplant—she’d forget she had something on the stove. Sometimes she burnt it, but more often than not it turned out great despite her not being a particularly skilled or confident cook. She didn’t “put things up,” so the jam was spooned into Cracker Barrel spreadable cheese containers and stored in the freezer.

Decades after Grandma made her last batch, I finally got around to making my own. I didn’t opt for her method since I knew I would never get it right anyway. I found a recipe in a cookbook inherited from another family member, a great aunt who was a skilled and confident cook. (Strictly speaking, despite her talents, she used a cornbread mix but I never told anyone until after she died since I knew it would ruin her reputation.)

The recipe is fairly simple, but it’s easier if you have a food mill since the fruit is first cooked—pits and all—then pureed, and cooked once more, this time with the sugar, to your desired thickness. Since I don’t have a food mill I push the stuff through a sieve and it takes forever; if you also lack a food mill, you can cut out the stones and save yourself some time. You can use any plums you like (I actually use about 6 varieties, buying some of each as they come into season then store in freezer bags until I have a couple gallons worth), but be sure to use some with black or deep-red skin so you’ll have a nicely colored jam.

Cat Boy Plum Jam
Adapted from “American Woman’s Cook Book” circa 1951

Makes approximately 4 half-pints of jam

1 quart plums, washed and cut in half, stones removed if you prefer
½ cup water
2 cups of sugar, approximately
Juice of a fresh lemon or two

Place the plums and water in a saucepan; bring to boil and lower to a simmer. Cook, covered, until the fruit—including the skin—is very tender. If you removed the stones, you can puree the mixture using a blender or food processor; otherwise press through a fine sieve or a food mill to form a thick pulpy liquid. You can stop here and refrigerate the mixture if you’d like to space your work out over a couple of days.

Measure the puree and return to the pot with about ½ cup sugar per cup of plums for a moderately sweet-tart jam, about 1/3 cup for a quite-tart jam. Cook over medium heat, stirring most of the time until the jam is glossy and shimmering and falls from a wooden spatula in thick drips. (You can use a candy thermometer and cook it to the jelly point if you want to, but I’m more of an eye-baller.) Add lemon juice and taste for a balance of sweet to acid, adding as much as you think it requires. (One year I incorrectly measured the sugar and ended up adding a full cup of lemon juice to fix things; oddly enough, the jam was especially good that year.)

Pour the jam into hot sterilized jars, seal, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes for 8- or 12-ounce jars. Alternately, cool and store in the refrigerator.

Easy Potato Pancakes Mixed in a Blender!

When I started this blog, it was my goal to put up, on average, one post a day. I figured there would be some days when I couldn't manage to write something brilliant, but I hoped I could make up for those missing posts on sparkling days where I'd have enough cooking for two posts. At the end of the year, I wanted to have 365 posts.

And I really, really hoped that at the end of the year I would be just as interested in this crazy idea as I was when I first launched it. Because, you know, it sounded sort of fun when I first picked a name and a color scheme and a tag line. And then I stared at a blank screen and wondered if anyone was out there. Hellooooo? And I wondered how long it would be before the first stranger happened upon my blog and started reading.

Well, the year isn't over, and this is post number 356. A milestone. A lot of words. And over 100 original bread (or bread-like) recipes. Yes, over ONE HUNDRED. In less than a year. And along with those breads, there were soups and dessert and reviews and gadgets. And visitors! I'm not talking to myself!

But the year isn't over. Just because I've reached 365 posts, it doesn't mean I'm going to take the rest of the year off. There are a couple weeks left, and I've got a few more original recipes up my sleeve before I wrap myself up and cart myself over to 2011.

But meanwhile, a topic on Serious Eats got me thinking about the first recipe I ever created completely on my own. It ended up being potato pancakes. I say it "ended up" being potato pancakes, because there wasn't all that much of an endgame planned. It was a food experiment that went amazingly right.

It went like this. My mom worked nights waitressing sometimes, and as a "treat" I was allowed to make snacks for me and my dad. Yeah, back then they bribed me to be good by allowing me to cook. I guess the writing was on the wall that long ago.

Anyway, most of the time that meant mixing cream cheese and chili sauce and spreading it on crackers, or using that as a filling for celery sticks. Or I made other dips with sour cream and herbs. Simple stuff without much real cooking because I was too short to see the top of the stove, much less be able to stir a pot way up there. So the stove was off limits for solo flights, although I was allowed to use sharp knives at a young age. I have the thumb scar to prove it, after an apple peeling incident.

But I digress.

One night, things were different. Instead of me prepping things while mom was home, this time we waited until dad got home. And then he brought out the blender. He thought it would be a great idea if we blended some ingredients. It started with some eggs and then I added onions. I guess this was heading to be an omelet.

Dad kept asking me what I wanted to add, and he'd go along with my suggestions. I don't know if he had a better idea where this was going than I did, but he let me make the final decisions. Is this enough? Do we need more? Then I decided it would be good to add potatoes. Raw potatoes.

I guess I was thinking about hash browns inside my scrambled eggs, so we peeled and chunked a potato and it went into the blender with the eggs and onion, and we gave it a whirl. We probably added salt and pepper, because that's what you do, but to be honest, I don't recall much else besides the eggs, onions and potatoes. Maybe green peppers... or not ... and I think we might have added flour. Just a little.

And then dad took this creation of mine to the stove and cooked it in a frying pan, and it turned out very much like my mom's potato pancakes, but with a completely different texture.

I was totally surprised at how it ended up. I expected weird scrambled eggs, but what I got was smooth potato pancakes. And despite the texture difference, they were good. Or at least I remember them being good. Dad and I ate them all. It was a good night. And my first original recipe.

I always say that I learned my cooking method from my mother, who added things and tasted and adjusted all during the process, like when she made soup or spaghetti sauce. She always turned out winners. But she wasn't much of a rebel. She worked with what he knew.

On the other hand, this is very much like my method of throwing things together that seem right, and then seeing how it all works out. I guess I owe that to my dad and his willingness to let me combine things randomly just to see what happened.

These are nothing like mom's potato pancakes, grated by hand at great peril to knuckles. Nope, not at all. These are for you, dad, recreated as best I could remember.

And hey, they were good. Weird, maybe. But that's okay. A little weird in the kitchen is a good thing.

Blender Potato Pancakes

2 eggs
1/2 medium onion
2 small potatoes (not tiny new potatoes, but smallish red potatoes) peeled and chunked
2 tablespoons flour
Salt and pepper to taste

Put it all in the blender and blend until smooth.

Heat a small amount of oil in a pan. Pour or spoon dollops of the batter onto the pan. Cook until the first side is browned. Flip, then cook until the second side is done.

Serve with sour cream. Okay, you can also serve with applesauce, if that's what you like. But we always used sour cream.