Cream of Asparagus soup

Hooray! My internet is back! And just in time to post about what I'll be making for Valentine's Day dinner. But first, let's play a little catch up.
This past week I tried a new way to use asparagus -in soup! It seemed pretty straight forward and easy:

Boil coarsely chopped asparagus, and simmer until tender. Reserve 1 cup of the boiling water, and drain the rest of the asparagus. Then put the reserved liquid, 1 1/2 cups chicken stock, 2 tbsp of chopped onion, and the asparagus in a pot and boil for 5 min. When that is done, dump the whole pot into a blender or food processor and blend until fairly smooth. Return blended asparagus mixture to the pot, and add 1 cup of heavy cream over low heat, salt and pepper to taste.

Simple, right? It is... It is also incredibly bland! It had such potential for being a wonderful side course to our meal, but it was sorely lacking in flavour. In the future I will tinker with this recipe, and I think adding butter along with the cream, as well as crumbled bacon pieces should 'fix' the blandness of this dish.

Early Spring!

Punxsutawney Phil the groundhog didn't see his shadow today, so an early spring is expected! Thank The Lord too, because I'm tired of all this snow!

Fried Chicken is on the menu tonight with steamed broccoli. As I promised a meal review of the past few days, we had Lamp chops with Cognac Cream Sauce (yummy! Recipe below) and baked sweet potatoes, oven baked cod fish -marinated in truffle flavoured oil, salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, and fresh dill- .served along with a garden salad and Spanakopeta. Yes, I finally attempted Spanakopeta (Greek Spinach Pie). A long process, but well worth it! Last night was the beef pie. I made the filling in a pan on the stove top vs. in the crock pot, which actually came out 100 times better.

Cognac Cream Sauce (from Cooks.com)

 

1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 tsp. grated lemon rind
1 tsp. grated orange rind
1/4 c. sweet paprika
1/4 c. olive oil
Bay leaves
4 (2 inch) filet mignon
3 tbsp. cognac
1/2 c. finely chopped onion
1/4 c. dark beer (optional)
1 tbsp. ketchup
1 tsp. Worcestershire
1/4 c. fresh minced parsley
1/4 c. heavy cream
Salt and pepper

 

Blend butter, lemon rind, orange rind, paprika, salt and pepper. In a skillet, heat oil with bay leaf on high heat, discard bay leaf and saute the filets for 12-15 minutes, turning. Take out and keep warm.Pour off oil and deglaze the skillet with cognac. Add butter mixture, onion and cook low until onion cooked. Stir in beer, ketchup, Worcestershire, parsley. Bring to a boil. Stir in cream. Season with salt and pepper and serve over filet mignon with rice. Serves 4.

Fried fish and Dill horseradish sauce

An easy break for fish that will get eaten right up! If you do happen to have left overs, it makes for great fish sandwiches the next day... We had this the other night along side spinach salad.

Fried Cod Fish

1 large Cod fillet cut into medium/large chunks
2 Eggs, beaten
2 tbsp. Half and Half or Milk
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup Flour
Shortening
Parchment paper
Lemon

Combine eggs and milk together in one bowl, beat well, then set aside. Mix bread crumbs and flour together in another bowl, set aside. Melt shortening in a large fry pan -enough to fill the pan half way. While you are waiting for the shortening to come up to frying temp: dip your fish into the egg mixture, and then into the bread crumbs, coating well. As you coat each piece, place them on parchment paper to get ready for the pan. Fry each piece around 2-3 minuets on each side. Drain fried fish on wire cooling racks before serving. Serve with lemon wedges and Dill Horseradish Cream Sauce.

Dill Horseradish Cream Sauce

4 tbsp. Butter
1 oz. Cream cheese (cubed)
1/4 cup Half and Half
1-2 tbsp. Creamy Prepared Horseradish (or more to taste)
1 tbsp. Dill (fresh)
Salt

Melt butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Using a whisk, add cream cheese and melt into butter. When these are combined, slowly add the half and half. Soon as that is integrated, add the rest of ingredients. Serve over fish.