Turkey Udon with Butternut Squash and Corn

Post-Thanksgiving: dealing with leftovers, and lots and lots of stock. With some of yesterday's ingredients and this morning's stock, I concocted this soup.

Turkey Udon with Butternut Squash and Corn

Serves 4

6 cups turkey stock
1 medium sized butternut squash, cubed
1 cup corn
3 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried lemongrass
3 bunches of udon, cooked to package directions
1 cup cooked turkey, shredded (I prefer dark meat, but white is also delicious)
Salt and white pepper to taste

Chopped green onions

4 eggs, optional

Bring 3 cups of turkey stock to a boil with an additional cup of water. Boil squash until fork-tender and remove with a slotted spoon. Add remaining turkey stock, ginger, garlic, and lemongrass, and simmer until fragrant (10-15 minutes). Add corn and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and white pepper.

Divide the udon into four large, deep bowls and top with butternut squash and shredded turkey. Cover with boiling turkey soup and garnish with green onions and a hard boiled or poached egg, if desired.

My moody squash, posing.

Bacon, Cheddar, and Pear Grilled Cheese

Partially inspired by Home in Disarray's grilled cheese post from yesterday, Ali and I decided on a sandwich to accompany our asparagus salad.

This is Ali, with our asparagus salad. She's wearing the best hat.

We ended up making a bacon-cheddar-pear grilled cheese sandwich as our second course.

Bacon, Cheddar, and Pear Grilled Cheese:

For two sandwiches:

2 pieces of wheat flatbread, cut in half-moons
4 piece of turkey bacon
1 Bartlett pear, cut into slices

1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated
White pepper

Lime juice

Toss pear slices in a bit of white pepper and a squeeze of lime juice.

Cook the bacon until brown and fragrant, peppering each side lightly. Remove from pan to a paper towel lined plate, reserving the fat. Once cool, chop the bacon finely into pieces.

Place half of each flatbread in the pan over medium-low heat, top with some grated cheddar, then pears, then more cheddar, then top with bacon and the remaining halves of flatbread. Flip over sandwiches carefully and cook for another 2-3 minutes, until the bottom later of cheese has melted.

Slice, serve, and know that if you're taking classy photos, the other diner will finish their food in the span it takes to take all the pictures. It was really freaking good.

Broccoli-Cheddar Soup

Today for lunch, Ali made broccoli grilled cheese... which I opted out of for my delicious BLT: turkey bacon, horseradish cheddar, spinach, and heirloom tomato.

I can't escape a broccoli and cheese temptation, though, so I made broccoli-cheddar soup this evening, and silly me, after tweeting, I got recipe requests from some friends. Enjoy.

Broccoli-Cheddar Soup:

2 tablespoons butter

1 small onion, finely diced

1 stalk celery, finely diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups broccoli (about 4 small heads) cut into very small pieces (you want them to fit on a spoon)

2 cups chicken stock (I used two chicken bouillon cubes dissolved in two cups of hot water)

2 cups milk

1/2 cup flour

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Salt and white pepper

Melt butter in a pot over medium heat, add onions and celery plus a pinch of salt and pepper and cook until soft. Add garlic, cook for another minute. Add broccoli, cook for one minute, then add the chicken stock and cover. Allow the broth to come to a boil, and cook until the broccoli is soft.

Whisk together flour and milk until combined. Add this mixture to the pot, stirring gently. The soup will thicken (yay starch!) and once it's thick and creamy looking, add the grated cheddar. Salt and pepper to taste, serve with toast.

Asparagus Salad

When I was a junior in high school, our food service program started Taste of Konawaena, an evening food festival of student-cooked dishes, for the public to enjoy. My senior year, I prepared an asparagus salad, and won first prize in appetizer and the people’s choice award. It’s still one of my favorite composed salads. Recipe follows.

Asparagus Salad:

1 pound thin asparagus, tough ends broken off, then cut or snapped into 1 inch pieces (if you want to make it really pretty, you can cut the stalks on a diagonal)

4 cloves garlic, finely minced

3 tablespoons olive oil

4 hard boiled eggs, sliced into circles (or ovals, whatever tickles your fancy)

4 hearts of palm, sliced into circles

Salt and fresh cracked pepper

Pecorino-romano, grated

Combine olive oil and garlic in a saute pan with a pinch of salt. Cook on medium heat until the garlic is dancing in the pan and smells cooked, about a minute. If you were to taste it, the garlic would be soft and aromatic, not crispy. Turn the heat on low, add the asparagus pieces and another pinch of salt and a grind of pepper and cook for a few minutes, until the asparagus is bright green and the center of the stalk is no longer bright white. If you were to taste the asparagus, it would be crisp and not stringy. Remove from heat immediately.

Arrange the salad on four plates, with one egg, one heart of palm, and a quarter of the asparagus on each plate. Play with circles and lines and the beautiful asparagus tips, and make it pretty. Scatter a few grinds of black pepper on the top and sprinkle with grated pecorino-romano.

(Feeds four as an salad course, or one hungry Ma’ayan who is craving asparagus, though I only used one egg and two hearts of palm for my single dish)

Winter Term, Day Thirty One: Sometimes Good Things End

A final trip to West Side Market and Trader Joe's today, to get all the ingredients for our last final delicious meal.

On the menu:
Hummus by me (topped with sambal and sriracha OR za'atar and olive oil)
Oregano flatbread by Daniel
Terra chips brought by Carolyn
French onion soup with Gruyere toast by Michael
Greek salad with lemon vinaigrette by Amanda
Grilled asparagus, zucchini and red peppers by Daniel
Penne alla vodka with pancetta by me
Spaghetti with mushrooms, garlic, and olive oil by me











Dessert:
Nainamo bars by Eli
Chocolate espresso scones by Daniel
Lime-coconut macaroons with haupia (coconut pudding) filling and chili chocolate dipping sauce by Daniel
Grapefruit cupcakes with grapefruit curd, whipped cream, and spun sugar by Eliza
















In addition to all this great food, we had lots of great people around: Mike, Hana, Carolyn, Yoshi, Chris, Sneha, Tevi, Daniel, Michael, Eliza, Amanda, Eli and Matt. Thank you all who came and brought plates. It was an incredible end to the month of food.

Winter Term, Day Thirty: Pizza Day

Daniel had made granola by the time I woke up this morning. I proceeded to make a Feve-brunch like scramble with cubed flank steak, avocado, onions, cilantro, salsa, and cheddar cheese.



Dinner was pizza night. Toppings included:

Tomato sauce
Alfredo sauce
Roasted red peppers
Onions (raw and sauteed)
Roasted shallots
Roasted garlic
Sauteed spinach
Sauteed portabellos
Black olives
Pepperoni
Shredded chicken
Cheddar, mozzarella, and parmesan cheese

We also had Italian wedding soup with mini meatballs, orzo and spinach, Chris made baked brie, and Daniel made espresso chocolate chunk scone with a coffee glaze for dessert. Yoshi and Sneha rounded out house pizza night.