Well, that was a rather long and unintended hiatus. Summer peaches have come and gone. It is now decidedly autumn. And autumn means thick, hearty soups.
I decided to make this soup because I had a very old baguette. And I don’t just mean days old, I mean weeks old. I suspect neither Kelly Myers nor Lidia Bastianich intended this soup to be made with bread this old. But it does say “dried bread,” and this baguette was definitely dry.
It’s peach season! Hooray! Last weekend, I bought 5 pounds of white peaches and nectarines at the farmer’s market, and my housemate and I polished them all off in 5 days!
Some yellow peaches also found their way into this pie, which is like peaches and cream in a decadent, flaky pastry crust. I often find fruit pies too ooey-gooey and liquidy, but this one isn’t like that at all. Instead, it’s slices of sweet peaches held together by a custard-like filling. Yum.
Ok, so it’s not exactly the most balanced of dinners, but there is protein and there is, um, calcium?
By rights, this is an easy, elegant-yet-fun hors d’oeuvre. It’d be equally at home served at a cocktail party or at a brunch. Or, you know, perched on the kitchen stool after a late night at the office.
I have had a weakness for pappardelle ever since I had an exquisite homemade pappardelle with sugo de cinghiale at Dino in Washington D.C. The pasta was so wide, and yet delicately thin and perfectly al dente. Topped with a hearty wild boar ragu, it was an enthralling study in contrasts. So now every time I see a recipe that calls for pappardelle, I perk up a bit. Alas, dried pasta is really no match for freshly-made pappardelle, texture-wise. But this ragu is great nonetheless. Lamb and peas is a lovely combination. One musky, gamy, and hearty, and the other fresh, sweet, and delicate.
I was in the mood for a light and refreshing dinner, and this is just what I was looking for! The shrimp lend sweet, briny, and succulent flavor to an otherwise straightforward pasta salad, and the basil and everything else blends together nicely. Since the main ingredient is shrimp, the sooner you eat it the better, but mine kept for about three days – by Day 4, it was starting to be a bit dodgy.
You’ll find pink shrimp in the freezer section. They are small shrimp (is that redundant?) that come already cooked and peeled. (Thank goodness, since I wouldn’t have the patience to peel that many tiny shrimp!) The bag that I picked up happened to be MSC-certified Oregon pink shrimp. MSC stands for Marine Stewardship Council, which is an independent certifier that evaluates wild-caught seafood on a variety of sustainability criteria. Oregon pink shrimp are also rated Green/Best Choice by the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, which is another useful tool for learning more about sustainable seafood options (they even have an iPhone app!). Oregon pink shrimp rate favorably with these programs because fishermen targeting these shrimp have taken steps to reduce the amount of other fish caught unintentionally (bycatch), and because the shrimp have short life spans and reproduce quickly, making it naturally harder to overfish them.
Rosie and Naomi, our laying hens.
Nearly two years ago, I started running across people (mostly in the blogosphere) who were raising chickens in their backyards. This was pretty intriguing, especially since free-range eggs sell for a pretty penny. And from reading the various blogs, chickens seemed relatively easy to raise. I mentioned the idea to my housemates, and they were interested/tolerant of the idea. We looked into the city code and found that we are allowed to have 4 hens, and we let our neighbors know about our plans, in case any of them objected. Duty done, off we went to Half Moon Bay Feed & Fuel to pick out our chicks!
After being out of town for most of April, I returned to find a serious overabundance of eggs from the chickens in my yard. And I didn’t make a concerted effort to work through them right away, so by July, I had accumulated 3 or 4 dozen eggs. When the third egg carton was beginning to overflow, and there were several more eggs waiting to be rinsed, dried, and refrigerated, I decided it had gone too far. It was time to tackle the eggs. I made a massive 18-egg frittata, followed by an angel food cake (12 egg whites). This got me back into reasonable territory as far as number of eggs. But now I had a dozen egg yolks needing a purpose. So I made Pan de Muerto and Maple Flan (without the walnut crust). I was going to make mayonnaise too, but by then, the yolks were smelling a bit ripe.
The last few times I’ve been to the Milk Pail Market, I’ve seen a bin of these little green pods, but I had no idea what they were. They looked a little like edamames, but with smaller and more delicate shells. Later, as I was browsing through some food blogs, I saw a photo of a chickpea plant, and I suddenly realized – these are those pods!
It was only recently that I realized chickpeas, a.k.a. garbanzo beans, came in any form besides canned. And I was never sufficiently curious about dried garbanzo beans to bother with them. But people also eat them fresh? My goodness! These I had to try! I came home with several handfuls.
Now what to do with them? First, I tried some raw. They taste very fresh and green, but also surprisingly sweet. Delicate, and not at all starchy like the canned ones. They have a crisp crunch, almost juicy. Refreshing on a hot day.
I also steamed some and then tossed them with lime juice, salt, and chili powder. After just a few minutes of cooking, they were transformed into creamy little morsels, and the sweetness came through even more clearly. You’re supposed to suck the beans out of the pods so that you get both the seasoning and the sweet, soft pea inside. I’m pretty good with popping edamame out of their shells, but I haven’t quite mastered the technique with these yet. Nonetheless, my conclusion is they are better steamed than raw. Roasting with olive oil and salt would probably be good too!
