laura k – Page 3 – The Kitchen Illiterate

Still Soup Weather

I realize that a lot of you are perhaps already experiencing that thing called BBQ weather, but in the Northeast, we’ve been rained in through almost all of June. I’ve been gazing at the pages of spring produce in Bon Appetit for the last two months, wondering when, oh when is it going to be our turn, and then looking at the window and realizing it’s not our turn yet.

But for all of you who live in already sunny climes, I know there are a lot of you who are also plagued with late June rains. I’ve been reading food blogs from people around the US who are also wondering where the heck summer is, and I have a few friends and readers in the southern hemisphere for whom summer is a half a year away. So in honor of our late-arriving spring, and those of you for whom soup season is just gearing up, I put together this post of some of my favorite soup recipes from the last two years.
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Lobster Risotto

It is amazing how fast time is passing these days. I do believe I promised to share this lobster risotto a few days ago, but suddenly the weekend was over and I still hadn’t posted this recipe. Doh. My apologies.

I was dreaming of lobster risotto for a long time. Over a year, in fact. But cooking lobster always seemed so decadent, so difficult, so expensive…it was one of those things I just kept putting off. Which is silly, because it’s really none of those things, and lobster risotto is so wonderful, it’s worth boiling up a lobster just for this dish alone. Though if you’re lucky, you can have a lobster dinner one night, and lobster risotto with the leftovers the next.
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One Last New England Lobster

One of the things on my Things to Do in Boston Before I Move list was cooking lobster. I probably should have re-phrased that, though, to read “Make Mr. X cook me lobster” because when it came down to it, well, I wussed out. There is just something about those things that gives me the heebie-jeebies, even after they’re dead. But I’ve got myself a pretty great man, and when I told him I wanted lobster, he took on all the heavy lifting of this particular cooking project without complaint. He even bought an extra lobster so I could make lobster risotto later in the week.
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Logo assistance?

I have mentioned here before that I have a big ol’ shiny site re-design in the works. In pursuit of that project, I’m looking for a budding graphic designer who might be able to draw me up a nifty logo.

I don’t have much in the way of extra funds these days to hire an artist, BUT I can cook! So in exchange for your artistic services, I’m happy to invite you over for a home-cooked meal (if you live in the Walla Walla, WA area) or I will mail you a huge and tasty care package of your favorite kinds of treats.

If you think you might be willing to put your skills to work for the new and improved Kitchen Illiterate, and get some good eatings for your labor, please either leave a comment here or email me at lkrier@yahoo.com.

Fiddlehead Ferns, at last

Here it is, my last two weeks in Boston. And I have to say, it has been a pretty lame spring so far. I know that June can often be gloomy and disappointing, but I had hoped that New England would give me a break and throw me some sunshine, just so I could leave with fond memories, rather than the reassurance I already feel that moving back to the west coast was the right idea.

The hardest part of a late and crappy spring? I’m still waiting for all those lovely spring vegetables Bon Appetit has been bragging about for the last two months. Our farmer’s markets are still pretty darned paltry, where they are even open at all. And I thought that I had missed the narrow window for Fiddlehead ferns, a treat I’m not so sure will be available in Walla Walla, Washington. But once again, it was Mr. X to the rescue: He found these at the market last week and bought them up for me, because he’s pretty swell like that.
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Mushroom Sausage Puffs

I love puff pastry. I consider it a culinary wonder. But it’s not exactly something you can have for dinner every night, and most of the uses to which puff pastry can be put fall firmly in the appetizer category. So I relish the opportunity to make appetizers for dinner parties, and I was given just that opportunity this past weekend. Our awesome friends Stan and Charity hosted a dinner party and invited me, Mr. X, and some kind of pre-dinner treat, so I decided to throw together these.

They are very similar to the Mushroom and Goat Cheese Triangles I have made for several dinner parties in the past, but I wanted to do something a little different, a little more substantial. So sausage it is! And frankly, I think they are much better for it.
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Spinach and Barley Soup

Alright, so it’s not really soup weather anymore. In fact, Boston has suddenly leaped forward into what is pretty much summer. But I bought all this spinach when it was still soup weather, overcast and wet and chilly, and I really wanted this soup. It might be my last soup of the season, or at least, the last hot soup (I have some gazpacho in mind). So I had to do it. And even though it was 85 degrees out, and probably hotter in my kitchen, it was completely worth it. That bright green color made me so happy, and it was light and brightly flavored, and really would have been 100 percent perfect if I had made it when it was still hovering around 50 degrees in Massachusetts. At least now I have it in my repertoire for fall. And if you come across another cool day before summer is official, I recommend you give this soup a shot.
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Pollo al ajillo

The last month has been crazy. Between finishing graduate school, preparing for a job interview, and traveling to California and to Washington within the space of a week, I hardly had a chance to breathe. Then I came back from Washington (site of aforementioned job interview) and, before I had even unpacked, I was offered the job and was immediately thrown into the reality of moving across the country. So it looks like the next month will be crazy, too.

During all of that craziness, this recipe sat patiently on my desk, just waiting for me to find, not just the time to prepare food of any kind, but an occasion that deserved it. That occasion came last week when Mr. X and I finally had a Saturday evening at home that involved me not doing homework and him not doing work. Amazing. As was this dish.
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Soy-glazed Red Snapper with Spring Vegetables and Roasted Potatoes

It’s finally spring in New England, though we are still about a month away from farmer’s market produce. I’m only four days away from finishing grad school, and miraculously, am actually finished with all my finals—I had to finish early because we had a trip to take: I’m in Los Angeles for my good friend Kim’s wedding! It’s already been a great party, and the wedding itself is this evening, at a ranch in Malibu.

I kind of forgot that eating in Southern California tends to take place in chain restaurants more often than not. We went to the San Fernando Valley’s “restaurant row” last night, which consisted of The Cheesecake Factory, El Torito, Fuddrucker’s, Quizno’s, and P.F. Chang’s. That’s about all there is in walking distance of our hotel. We did get room service for breakfast this morning, which is certainly never the best food, but I love having someone bring a tray of covered plates to my room and being able to eat breakfast on a fluffy, white King-sized bed.
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Spinach and Sweet Pea Pasta

I don’t need to say it again, do I? In Boston, our farmers’ markets are still a long way away. Things aren’t really growing yet. Eating locally without eating potatoes is still a distant dream. So, a message to all the food writers out there in happier climes: Stop taunting me with all your joyous greenery and ramps and asparagus and small, alive things poking their little heads out of the ground.

Alright, maybe I should just stop reading if it saddens me so much, right? Or, I can use the bounty of others as inspirations in these last, dragging days of winter here in New England, and create a light, simple, verdant pasta dish that lets me pretend like it’s spring, even if none of its ingredients are really fresh from the ground. As you can see, I decided to take the second course.
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