Toasted Flour Soup

When I stumbled upon this recipe I knew I had to try it.  It's a traditional Swiss soup eaten at the festival in Basel to chase away the winter.

What you need

• flour (just a couple of tablespoons)
• butter
• onion
• beef stock
• red wine
• butter
• salt and pepper
• nutmeg
• baguette and swiss cheese (pour crouton)

Toast the dry flour.  I just did it in the bottom of the soup pan.  Heat it up and stir often to prevent burning.  It will change colour basically making a dry roux.  Now, I don't know if dry toasting it is better than just starting with butter and making a roux but I did it this way to see what happens.  I then added some butter 'cause it makes it easier when you add the liquids.  Then toss in a finely chopped onion and cook a bit in the roux.  You could saute the onion in a pan and then add it if you're worried about over cooking the roux.  Then add beef stock, red wine, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Stir and let simmer for half an hour.

Toast some baguette slices and then toast some swiss cheese on to them.  Place a couple of the large crouton into each bowl and pour the soup over them.

Damn this is a tasty soup.  Now it is just like eating a bowl of gravy... but what's wrong with that?  The combination of toasted flour, beef, onion and the acidity from the wine is great together.   And when you get to eating the crouton it's just like a cheesy piece of bread that's been sitting in gravy... I'm drooling a bit as I type this.  Now, you can't eat this every day but once and a while go toast some flour and make this simple onion soup.

Curly Endive aux lardons

Still working my way through a bunch of curly endive (see Curly Endive pear blue cheese salad)

This is a tres simple salad.

Make some lardons.  I used some salted port belly but pancetta or regular bacon works also.
Cut your pig into little rectangular sticks and fry them up.
Wash your endive and tear up into bite sized pieces.
Use about twice as much as you think you need.
Toss the endive into the hot pork fat with the lardons.
Put on a plate and eat.  Damn that's good.  Bitter greens in pork fat.  The pork is already really salty so you don't need to add any.

Curly Endive, Pear and Blue Cheese salad

As I sauntered through the fruit and vegetable store.... there's a place near Pape subway that allegedly is a 24hr fruit and veg store (I say allegedly 'cause I've never tried to procure a carrot at 3 a.m.)... Regardless, I was in that store and I saw a bunch of endive. 

It looked like this





Now this is curly endive

not belgian endive

nor frisée

(now frisée is just baby curly endive)

Anyway, I bought it to make a salad.  Which salad you may ask...

Endive, Pear, Blue cheese salad.

• Tear up your curly endive into bite-sized pieces
• Wash thoroughly and sprinkly with salt and a little bit of sugar (it's a bit bitter but the sweetness from a little sugar and the pear really work on it)
• Slice up your pear and either leave in slices or chop down to matchsticks
• Sprinkle pear on endive
• Crumble up some blue cheese
• Sprinkle on salad
• Drizzle some olive oil
• Take a fork, use chopsticks, fingers work also and eat it

Damn, this is so good.  The endive is a bitter green when it's raw but with the sweetness of the pear and the sharpness of the blue cheese and it's held by the olive oil.  Damn this is good.  Go get some.

Jicama Crab Salad

Came across a Jicama in the local gocery store.  It was located along side the equally odd looking but delicious Celeriac.  The Jicama is also a root vegetable looking potato-ish.  It has a pretty tough skin so I went at it with a paring knife since the peeler wasn't up to it.

The Jicama.

Once the flesh was revealed I cut it up into 1/2" x 1/2" bite sized sticks.  It has a very crunch texture and a slightly sweet flavour like apple but not as sweet but really really crunchy.  I decided to turn it into a salad (I also made a hash out of them, but the salad was better)

What you need
Jicama (sliced into sticks)
Carrot (peeled into ribbons)
Celery (chopped into chunks)
Crab (I prefer the Pollock flavoured Crab as the Crab flavoured Pollock is far too common)
Yoghurt
Salt and Pepper
dash of Cayenne (or some dried ground Chipotle)

Mix it up in a bowl.  I dolloped this creamy mess onto a small bed of baby spinach.  Everything stays nice and crunchy and the Jicama adds a different texture and flavour.  Would I go running out and buying every one I can get my hands on - no.  But if I do come across it again, I know what it has to offer.

Whenever I see a vegetable I've never eaten before, I've got to get it and try it out.

Roasted Broccoli

What you need

• broccoli
• olive oil
• grated parmesan
• chipotle - dried, ground
• salt and pepper

I used a whole bunch for two people.
Break/cut florets off in large bite sized pieces
Peel the stems and chop into large bite sized pieces too
Toss in olive oil
Then toss in chipotle, salt, pepper, parmesan
Throw on a cookie sheet and jiggle it into a single layer
Toss it into an oven at 425
Let em turn nice and brown