Soupruary 9th: Creamy Asparagus

A beautiful night with beautiful friends, and some totally passable soup.


Location:
My humble abode, complete with patented Flable


Attendees:
Ashley, Carley, Evangeline, Joshua, Julie, Katie, Sebastien, me

Menu:
Radishes with butter and salt (first time this year!)
"Various and sundry cheesesetizers"-copyright Evey (Triple-cream Brie with apples, almonds, and mango-habanero sauce, cinnamon cranberry goat cheese, and TILLAMOOK!!! (sorry, got a little excited about the TILLAMOOK! thanks to Julie for that welcome addition))
Avocado, grapefruit and endive with citrus shallot dressing
Braised fingerling potato coins and leeks
Creamy asparagus soup with a poached egg on toast


Entertainment:
Show and Tell with Evey. What a fabulous idea she had--I'm thinking I'll make this a rule. Come over, and bring something to show (and tell, obvs). Fun, right?


Broken glass!!! (Come over around 8; we'll watch Say Anything.)


Trying (and probably failing) to defend myself for using the word concomitantly
Really solid conversation, the type that bolsters your soul. I've got soul afterglow going from all the girl talk into the wee hours.


The Soup:
Sometimes canceled plans are the equivalent of some seriously awesome gift wrapped up in, like, your 2006 taxes. Seems like a bummer, but turns out to be JUST WHAT YOU ALWAYS WANTED.

And so it was with today. Went to the gym (!!!???), popped 'round the shops, had a leisurely lunch that I did not cook (!!!??? (at a restaurant and everything!)), got some cleaning in, and had time to prepare food in a relaxed manner while listening to my beloved podsnaps (yesterday's picks: The Nerdist and The Smartest Man in the World).


Right, um, I'm meant to be talking about soup. It was fine, I think! Yes! Fine! It was a great deal better than my previous attempt at asparagus soup, and was very, um, asparagusy.

In general, I’m much more lover than fighter. In fact, I’d say the only exception is food. When I cook a dish that I fail to deem a success, I can be pretty scrappy and stubborn. Fiery even. So, here I am, two years after making a pretty boring and unsatisfying (even more so in retrospect) asparagus soup, and I still have a score to settle.

I kinda screwed up the eggs a bit. My distracted mind wasn't thinking things through well enough, and instead of boiling the water and then putting it the Pyrex on the heat to poach the eggs, I took the water up to a boil in the Pyrex. They came out okay, but then the casserole dish up and ASPLODED. Very dramatic. Very Soupruary.

So, then, as eggs love to do, they kinda kept cooking as Seb and Josh were scurrying around in rescue mode, attempting to clean up the shards from the cooking area (Seb got sliced a bit. Sorry, Sebby).


Right, so anyway, not a bad way to poach a ton of eggs at once, just avoid doing it while being super stupid at the same time.

A point for this soup: It is indeed creamy, without any cream in it. Way to go, soup! It's quite a nice soup, just not one of those soups that's going to be really the star of the meal. The potatoes (one of my favorite things to make--from Chez Panisse Vegetables, slightly altered with the addition of leeks) sort of overshadowed the soup in my mind. But, yeah, certainly nothing wrong with it. I'd say, if you're looking for an asparagus soup in particular, this one gets a seal of approval.

Try not to Corrie the eggs.

Creamy Asparagus Soup with a Poached Egg on Toast
Adapted from Jamie Oliver's Jamie at Home

1 ¾ pounds asparagus, woody ends removed
olive oil
1 white onion, peeled and chopped
2 stalks of celery, trimmed and copped
2 leeks, trimmed and chopped
2 quarts vegetable stock
8 small free-range organic eggs
8 slices of ciabatta bread
butter
extra virgin olive oil

Chop the tips off your asparagus and reserve. Roughly chop the asparagus stalks. Get a large, deep pan on medium heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Gently fry the onions, celery and leeks for around 10 minutes, until onions are soft and transparent. Add the chopped asparagus stalks and stock and simmer for 20 minutes with a lid on. Remove from the heat and puree with an immersion blender. Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper. Put the soup back on the heat, stir in the asparagus tips, bring back to the boil and simmer for a few more minutes until the tips have softened.

Toast your ciabatta slices. Boil a good bit of water and pour it into a casserole dish over high heat on the stove. Quickly crack all eight eggs into the water. Don’t worry about poaching so many at the same time. After a few minutes, use a slotted spoon to remove all the poached eggs to a plate and add a bit of butter to them. To serve, divide the soup between eight bowls and place a piece of toast into each with a poached egg on top.