So it's spring, supposedly, in NorCal and that means a lot of asparagus in general all over California. Most of it's grown in the central, or San Juaquin valley near Monterrey and Salinas. It becomes quite cheap and plentiful and makes for great soups and sautes and whatnot so here's a soup of it with some delicious Gruyere.
I have to apologize for not getting a pic of this recipe but it was too good to wait until the next making to get a pic and post.
And then there's the Buzzcocks, some classic British punk that I dig every so often, today being one of those days. - justin
Cream of Asparagus and Gruyere Soup Time: 45 minutes Difficulty: Medium Serves: 6-8
1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup)
1/2 yellow onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp salt 1 tsp ground black pepper
2 lbs asparagus, ends trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces (cut ends where stem becomes woody or tough)
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 1/2 oz sherry
1 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt (room temp)
2 oz grated Fontina cheese
4 oz grated Gruyere cheese
Melt butter in large stock pot or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, and saute for 5 minutes or until golden brown. Add salt and pepper. Add asparagus and saute another 4 to 5 minutes. Add stock, sherry, and paprika and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cook for 30-45 minutes or until asparagus is tender. Puree until smooth or until you reach the desired consistency.
Return to pot and stir in sour cream or yogurt and bring back up to a simmer. Slowly add Fontina and Gruyere and stir until fully melted into the soup. Serve hot with some chopped scallion as garnish.
Either of these recipes can be used as a dressing or a marinade for meat or veggies. Feel free to substitute the fresh herbs for what you have available to you in your area. We use what we have in abundance out here.
For musical accompaniment, I decided to go with an old classic, Death, a rock group from back in '75 who happened to be one of the first black groups in the genre. These guys prove that Detroit didn't just have soul, they had some punk rockers as well. Marinade on that for a little while. - justin
Many years ago, when I was in South America (the duty free zone of Panama City, Panama if you want me to get specific), I encountered two boys selling one of the best meals I've ever had in my life from a street cart on the side of the road. The older brother was approx 13 or so and his younger brother was about 10. On their cart they had a flat top griddle where the older brother fried up bits of chicken, onion, and cilantro that were all marinated in a delicious citrus marinade and served up in a half pita. His little bro sat beside him squeezing oranges into fresh juice for the marinade but also as a beverage to accompany the dish. The price of this meal was $2. My friend and I ate two straight off and after a couple hours of shopping and wandering we decided to go back and get more before leaving because they were just that damn good! I think I had 4 or 5 pitas and a couple glasses of OJ that day. Delicious!
This is my attempt at recreating the flavors that the marinade brought to the poultry. I decided to use rabbit instead of chicken partly because I had rabbit in the freezer but also because why not post a rabbit recipe in honor of Easter? Stupid bunny always leaving damn eggs all over the place! I'll fix him! Anyway, this marinade would work perfectly with chicken or pork so feel free to substitute if you feel squeamish eating Thumper.
Since I can't go too long without listening to them I decided to compliment this meal with some Pixies. More specifically, Debaser. It's a classic from my childhood and one that never fails to get my blood going! - justin
Citrus Braised Rabbit Time: 8 hr marinade, 1 hr cook time Difficulty: Medium Serves: 6
1 whole skinned rabbit, 2-3 lbs, cut into 6 pieces
3/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice, approx 2 large oranges
2 tbsp orange zest
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tbsp fresh chopped basil
3 tbsp white balsamic vinegar (you can sub white wine vinegar if you don't have white balsamic)
3 tbsp minced shallots
1 tsp celery seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp water
Place your rabbit in a large ziplock freezer bag for marinating, or bowl if you prefer. Combine orange juice, zest, salt, black pepper, basil, white balsamic vinegar, shallots, celery seed, and coriander and place in marinating vessel with rabbit. Allow to marinate 6-8 hours.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Bring oven safe skillet to temp over burner on medium flame and add the olive oil. Remove rabbit from marinade, reserving the liquid, and brown in skillet, approx 7-10 minutes per side. After rabbit is browned, add reserved marinade and broth to skillet and bring to a simmer, approx 2-3 minutes. Place the skillet in the oven, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and transfer rabbit to a plate. Dissolve cornstarch in the water. Simmer the liquid in the skillet over medium burner and add the cornstarch slurry. Stir with whisk until sauce thickens. Drizzle sauce over rabbit to serve.
I'd grabbed a Chinese chicken salad at our local co-op the other day for lunch. Forgetting how much I love Chinese chicken salad, I came home and told Justin we should come up with one that we dig. So instead of Chinese, we went with Thai! I don't think we ever get tired of the combination of cilantro, basil, and mint! I was a little leery of the chipotle in the dressing (begrudgingly inspired by Bobby Flay), but it was really great! We both ate giant bowls of this and in between mouthfuls, we just kept exclaiming how awesome the salad was (and how awesome we are!)
For music... well, this is how the conversation went. Me: What do you want to use for music? J: I dunno. Me: Did we use Screeching Weasel yet? J: "What We Hate" is my favourite of theirs. Me: I like that one too.
Not very inspiring, but still a great song from a band we love. -jen
THAI CHICKEN SALAD Time: 20 minutes prep at most Difficulty: If you can use a knife, you can do it, Nicky! Serves: 6-8
2-3 cups cooked chicken breast, cubed
1/2 head Napa cabbage, shredded
2 heads Romaine lettuce, shredded
4 medium carrots, shredded
1 cup broccoli florets
4 medium scallions, sliced long and thin
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup basil, chopped
1/4 cup mint, chopped
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons peanut butter (creamy or chunky, whichever you prefer)
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
2 tablespoons minced chipotle pepper
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon fish oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon lime zest
2 tablespoons lime juice
2/3 cup vegetable oil
salt & pepper to taste
crunchy chow mein noodles
In a large bowl, mix chicken, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, broccoli, scallions, cilantro, basil, mint and almonds.
In a smaller bowl, whisk vinegar, peanut butter, ginger, chipotle, soy sauce, honey, fish oil, sesame oil, lime zest, and lime juice. Whisk in vegetable oil until completely blended. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour dressing onto salad and toss. Toss your salad until you can toss it no more. TOSS IT!!! Then serve with crunchy chow mein noodles on top (don't mix them in, they'll get soggy).
Tip: If you think you'll have leftovers, don't mix the dressing with all the greens. Just pour the dressing on your individual servings, that way your greens don't get soggy in the fridge.
I really love red cabbage and its EXTREME CRISP! (I just wanted to hop on the EXTREME bandwagon.) So the night after Justin made Ribolita for dinner, I found we had all the fixings for a vegetable coleslaw using the leftover red cabbage! I whipped out the box grater and went to town! The slaw came out real tasty - we ate it with some pulled pork, good call there. Simple, basic recipe - super easy.
When I think of coleslaw, I think of the south. And so I was trying to think of some southern punk... and instead, my mind popped up with this song. Not punk, obviously, but I got there by way of punk! I woke up to Dylan's version on the radio this morning, thought about how I liked Ness' version better, and so somehow Social D wires crossed with southern food and if I ramble any more about how I get from one thought to another, I'm going to sound ridiculous. Mike Ness - Don't Think Twice. -jen
RED CABBAGE & BROCCOLI COLESLAW
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 small shallot, diced fine
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional because of the celery salt, add to taste)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 medium red cabbage, shredded
1 medium crown broccoli, shredded
4 medium carrots, shredded
In a large bowl, combine mayonnaise, Dijon, red wine vinegar, shallot, sugar, Old Bay, celery salt, and black pepper. Whisk until combined. Add cabbage, broccoli and carrot and toss until coated.
Tip: Make this the day before you want to eat it because the flavours meld deliciously once it refrigerates over night!
I guess we've been in a soup mood lately. Cream of Mushroom is one of my favourites and I'd been wanting to make a batch for a while. This batch I decided to do thinner than usual because I wasn't feeling like a gravy-esque soup, just something brothy and a little creamy.
I don't know why this song got stuck in my head when I was thinking of what to play. And so... with no connection whatsoever to Cream of Mushroom soup, here's Camper Van Beethoven with "Take the Skinheads Bowling". I could only find one link to the original video! They didn't even have it on Youtube, very odd! -jen
CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP
4 tablespoons butter
6 ounces crimini mushrooms, chopped
6 ounces button mushrooms, chopped
1 shallot, finely diced
1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
4 tablespoons flour
4 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons sherry
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dry thyme
1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage
salt & pepper to taste
1 cup heavy cream
In large sauce pan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Saute crimini and button mushrooms, shallot, bell pepper and garlic until tender, about 5-7 minutes. Stir in flour and cook another 3 minutes. Add chicken broth and whisk until flour is dissolved. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Soup should thicken. Then add sherry, Worcestershire, thyme, sage, and cream. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for another 5 minutes and serve.
It's been a bit chilly up here in Nor Cal and as such I've been making soups and stews more frequently. The latest was a delicious roasted tomato basil soup that we'd perfected a few years back and posted on our old blog (now defunct). So, I decided that I would post it here for reasons of sharing and for posterity. It is a delicious soup, assuming you like tomatoes and basil, and is awesome with a nice crusty grilled cheese or any sandwich really.
To accompany the soup I'm throwing in some SNFU as they take me back to a time when I ate soup and sandwiches far more often than I seem to of late. Some classic DIY punk with some DIY homemade soup. Plus, the song Painful Reminder is off of their album "Something Green and Leafy This Way Comes". Green, leafy...basil? Get it?- justin
3 lbs ripe plumb tomatoes cut in half (also called Roma tomatoes)
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp kosher salt
2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 tbsp butter
2 cups chopped onion
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flake (omit this if you don't like heat)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar (substitute red wine vinegar if you don't have balsamic)
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 28 oz can plum tomatoes
3 cups fresh basil leaves
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 quart chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss the ripe plumb tomatoes with the 1/4 cup olive oil, the salt and the pepper. Spread the tomatoes out in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes.
In an 8qt stock pot over medium low heat, saute the onions and garlic in the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil, the butter, the red pepper flakes, and the vinegar for about 10 minutes. Add the brown sugar, canned tomatoes (liquid and all), the basil, thyme and chicken stock. Add the oven roasted tomatoes, including any liquid that may have accumulated on the baking sheet. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer for 20 minutes.
Using a blender (immersion or standing will work), blend until the desire consistency is reached. Add the heavy cream and simmer for another 15-20 minutes.
This recipe can also be made without the cream if you want a "lighter" soup or is you wish to serve it chilled like a gazpacho.
