White Bean Soup with Roasted Asparagus

Now that we are fully into the spring season, the wonderful tastes of the warmer weather become available.  One of our favorite spring vegetables is asparagus, which is one of the first available spring vegetables and only in season for a few weeks.  As such, we were thrilled that this weeks food matters project recipe chosen by Adrienne prominently featured asparagus.

After finding locally grown asparagus we made this easy soup on an unseasonably cold and rainy day.  We loved the creamy texture of the soup (made possible with an immersion blender) and adding crispy roasted asparagus on top was just perfect.  Bittman suggests either not pureeing the soup at all or pureeing all of it (including the asparagus), but we decided to puree the beans to have a smooth soup but leave the asparagus whole so that the flavor shined through.

Once asparagus season ends we'll certainly experiment with some other vegetables (zucchini? eggplant? roasted tomatoes?) and enjoy this soup again!

Goat Cheese

If we knew how easy making cheese at home was, we would have started doing it much sooner!  While making a fine aged artisan cheese is a difficult task, making simple cheeses, like ricotta, goat, and mozzarella are quite straightforward.  Homemade cheese utilizes acid (lemon juice, citric acid, vinegar, etc.) to separate the whey from the curd of heated milk.  Once they two components separate, you just need to strain the curds through cheesecloth and add some flavorings.

This version of goat cheese is as simple as it gets.  While it is not as tart as classical chevre (making true chevre requires specific additives) it is smooth, creamy, and delicious.  Mixing in your choice of flavorings - from different kinds of peppers, to dried herbs, to sun dried tomatoes) - allows you to make it just the way you like.

Find some goat milk and give this recipe a try and you'll soon be hearing the great sound of "you made this?".

Mostly Whole Wheat Baguettes

For this week's food matters project recipe Melissa chose two of Bittman's bread recipes - Real Whole Wheat Bread and Mostly Whole Wheat Baguettes.  We often make Bittman's famous No Knead Bread and were excited to try some of his other bread recipes.  We decided to go with his baguette recipe, knowing that it would work perfectly with some cheeses we had in our fridge.  In fact, over the past few days we have paired it with dips, soups, and a variety of cheeses - all perfect uses for a simple baguette.

This baguette, because of it's mostly whole wheat makeup, is not as airy as those you may find in a quality bakery, but is delicious nonetheless.  Topping a few of them with a mixture of poppy and sesame seeds added a nice touch and good flavor, and next time we might try some fennel seeds, garlic, or rosemary.  Next time we are also going to try making a preferment out of some of the dough to give it a bit of a boost in bread/yeast flavor.  Stay tuned to see how those turn out!

For the complete recipe take a look at the Faux Martha.

Deep Dish Whole Wheat Pizza

After taking last week off from the food matters project we were excited to continue the adventure with  some delicious pizza.  Over the past year pizza has become a staple in our weekly dinners and we are always looking for new topping ideas or combinations.  In the spirit of the project we decided to try a whole new method of cooking and topping (more like filling) the pizza - deep dish in our new cast iron skillet!

To make the crust, we combined our classic pizza crust with Mark Bittman's version.  Ours is 100% whole wheat and involves some kneading (Bittman's is mostly whole wheat and doesn't require kneading).  By creating a preferment (or poolish for those who know their bread terms) the dough gains a deep and well-rounded bread flavor as well as increased gluten (for extra chewiness).  We also put dried herbs into the crust for even more fresh flavor.

As for the filling, we were inspired to make fresh ricotta (we had some soon-to-be expired milk) and saw some great looking local spinach when grocery shopping.  We combined these two with roasted potatoes, homemade marinara sauce that we canned earlier this year, smoked mozzarella, and roasted garlic.

The cast iron skillet yielded a crispy crust and is a good alternative to a pizza stone.  It's high sides are also perfect for deep dish pizza (like ours) or traditional pizza.

We greatly enjoyed trying a new twist on pizza and are looking forward to trying all new pizza combinations thought up by other food matters participants.

For Bittman's original recipe check out salt & pepper by Niki and see our variation below.

Breakfast for Dinner: Oatmeal Pancakes and Eggs

We often read about and see delicious looking recipes for breakfast or brunch, but don't have the time often enough to make them all in the morning (normally it's yogurt and granola).  To test out two great looking recipes we decided to have a breakfast-for-dinner night last night.  Casual nights like these are a nice change of pace from more traditional dinners, and tend to be quick and easy - an added bonus!

We had made these oatmeal pancakes once before, in waffle form, and while they were delicious didn't quite hold together.  This time, we made them into pancake form and they came out delicious.  The oats and whole wheat flour add great texture and flavor while the buttermilk and butter create classic pancake richness.  We are amazed that more pancake recipes don't call for oats, but these will certainly be a staple for us.

Alongside the pancakes we tested out a scrambled egg recipe using local eggs (a flavor that can't be beat).  These eggs are by far the best scrambled eggs we have ever eaten!  They are incredibly creamy and flavorful and it's a foolproof method that will always create perfect eggs.  We mixed the scrambled eggs with cream cheese and fresh basil and dill (now nicely growing on our balcony) which was ideal for a warm spring evening.

Give these recipes a try the next time you are looking for a relaxing brunch or a quick and fun dinner!

Pasta Risotto - Cassoulet Style

When we first heard about the Food Matters Project we knew that it would be a fun and interesting to be part of a group like this and liked the idea of having to try new recipes that we may not have otherwise cooked.  This weeks recipe, chosen by Keely, is a perfect example of adapting a recipe to fit our cooking style.

The Bittman recipe for the week is Cassoulet with Lots of Vegetables - a spin on the classic french dish with duck and sausage.  We spent a lot of time thinking about how we could adapt this to be vegetarian while still maintaining the heartiness of this dish.  We first thought about simply omitting the meat, but decided that what was left wasn't all seasonal and wouldn't be very satisfying.  So, we turned to a cooking technique we had seen before and one in which Bittman has a recipe for in the Food Matters Cookbook - pasta risotto.

This technique uses whole wheat spaghetti, instead of arborio rice, to create a creamy pasta by adding cooking liquid in stages.  We realized that while these two dishes seemed different at first, many of the ingredients overlapped and we were able to maintain the heartiness of cassoulet without the meat and much less fat.

In the end this dish turned out creamy, flavorful, and satisfying.  It is also very versatile to your tastes and seasonal ingredients and can be adapted as needed.  You can swap out the beans and tomatoes for mushrooms, spinach, winter greens, asparagus, peas, or any vegetable you like.  This dish is all about rich flavors, creamy textures, and satisfying heartiness so give it a try when you are in the mood for something unique!

For the original Bittman recipe, check out Keely Marie's blog.  For our adaptation keep on reading.