April 2nd - Asparagus Soup with Lemon Creme Fraiche

Good Friday To You

What a crazy day.  Put in a 5 hour shift at my part time job (people are so crazy), picked up my car from the auto body place (it was making a wierd noise), made the recipe for today (Brian did practically most of it), and started Julia Child's tripe recipe (I'm making it for Easter.  Yeah, a little wierd). 

Now, I'm ready to sit down with a bottle of wine and unwind.

So, let's get on with it...

THE RECIPE

Ingredients:

Butter: had

Shallots: $0.89

Asparagus: $2.98

Ground coriander: had

Veggie broth: $2.00

Sour Cream: had

Lemons : $0.59

Total: $6.46

I like to peel my asparagus  whenever I have to use it in a recipe.  I learned this from my restaurant days.  We used to do a chilled aparagus salad and peeling the asparagus got rid of that bitter taste and that husky texture that asparugus sometimes has. 

Start by cutting the asparagus near the bottom (you want to cut between where the hard stalk ends and the tender asparagus begins...for best results bend the asparagus and it should snap at that point) usually it winds up being the bottom 2 inches or so, it will vary with the type of asparagus.  Then take a peeler and holding the head (top) of the asparagus, lightly brush the peeler over the stalk to take off the outer skin.  Don't push too hard or you'll cut into the tender flesh of the stalk.  You just want to take off of the "leaf" looking things on the stalk and the skin.

Also, instead of buying creme fraiche (which can be a little pricey), I used some sour cream I had at home.  I think it was just fine, especially because you add lemon juice and lemon zest to it.

THE RESULTS:

FAST:  This recipe is really quick.  It took about 15 to 20 minutes total from start to finish.

EASY:  Since this soup will be pureed, you don't have to worry to much about your cuts.  Also, I used an immersion (hand) blender to puree it rather than a blender.  It works great and you don't have to worry about the blender exploding with hot liquid.

FRESH:  Most definitley.  The asparagus and the lemon sour cream work well with eachother. 

OVERALL:  This is a really easy and delicious soup.  Yeah, kids won't probably go for it, but adults (and company) will love it.  I'd garnish with some croutons to give it some crunch. 

This weekend is a really simple dessert with fresh berries.  I picked up some great strawberries for this recipe.  Oh, how I can't wait for the summer berries to return.  See ya tomorrow (or Sunday...depending on how I feel).