April Wraper

Hello!

It's that time again to listen (fine, read) me dribble on and on about what a fabulous soup club we had last month. Luckily for all of us every word I say and re-tell is true.

We had a fruity time this past soup club. We missed a big chunk of our regulars, but we pulled through and had a great time because of the our two old schoolers returned. We were a small, but mighty group of 8.

Jamie made a deliciously lime soup, which was very similar to a tortilla soup, but much limier and spicier. It was the perfect combination of acid and heat and texture from the tortilla strips. His beautiful wife Diana brought a delicious dish of figs wrapped in prosciutto.


Oldies Matt Brown and Fatimah brought the fruit funk as well. Matt made a to die for smoothie that was the perfect drink for such a hot day. It was a new take on an old favorite, Orange Julius. That Julius ain't got nothing on Matty Brown.


Fatimah made delicious shrimp tacos with a home made avocado and mango salsa. Again, a nice balance of acid and sweetness. It as a nice crisp straight forward dish with just enough pizazz to make it fun. It was also a wonderful dish for a warm day.


Silvia came with a classic Indonesian dessert, that I can't even pretend to remember how to spell or say. Let me just say this Indo-licious! It was a soup like dessert comprised of avocado, coconut milk, condensed milk, palm fruit, lychee, pineapples and a couple other exotic goodies. It was also a perfect beat the heat dish. I myself couldn't stop eating it.


Tiffany made a delicious take on nachos. Home made potato chips topped with rocquefort, apricot preserves, and brie. Salty meets sweet, what a delicious combo. I just wished there was more, but thankful there wasn't so my stomach didn't grow any larger than it had.


Now for the winners... Laine and I tied for first place for best overall dish and yours truly won for best presentation! Laine made delicious stuffed and panko fried olives with a Meyer lemon dipping sauce. His winning recipe is above for the nitty gritty details. I must say that I kept eating those little suckers for two days and the panko crust remained crunchy. I don't know which gods you prayed to, but I've never eaten a friend food out of the fridge without reheating that remained crispy and crunchy.


I made a pan seared steak with a blackberry cherry sauce. It was a simple straight forward dish, which is not usually my thing. Great chefs make great sauces, so I wanted to test my metal and see if I could rock and roll on a simple, but important component to many dishes.


I also made a dessert amuse bouche which was take on cheese cake. I stuffed raspberries with brillat savarin cheese, dipped it in cherry preserves then dipped them in graham cracker crust.


We also played a little food game. Everyone wrote down a food related question and we each drew one and gave our answers. There were three questions relating to food and sex and a few people declined to answer. We are apparently a much saucier group than I realized. Food and sex... What a combo, especially warm brie according to a certain red head in the group...

Enjoy the photos! Clearly I need help in formatting! Oy vay... sorry. Next soup club will be May 17th. I will send out an email regarding that.

Peace and Chicken Grease,
Prez B

CRISPY STUFFED OLIVES W/ APPLE & GARLIC AIOLI

I won our fruit challenge with this recipe and it was rather easy to make. It just took some time to get the olives stuffed.

Olives:

2 10oz. jars colossal olives
1/4 lb spicy italian turkey sausage
1 clove garlic, chopped
3 eggs, whisked
flour
panko breadcrumbs (italian seasoned ones if you can find)

Aioli:

1 apple, grated
1 lemon, juiced
4 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
sea salt
course black pepper

For the olives:

Pull the pimentos from the olives with a toothpick, rinse the olives and soak them in plain water for as long as you can (overnight is fine) to get some of the brine out. Mix the chopped garlic into the loose sausage (taken from it's casing if it was a link). Put the sausage into a ziplock bag and cut the tip of one corner off. Use the bag to pipe the sausage into the olives. Toss the stuffed olives lightly with olive oil, then toss them in flour, shake off excess flour, dredge them in the whisked eggs, then roll them in the panko. Fry in very hot oil for 3 minutes then transfer to a cookie rack over a brown paper bag to let oil drain off.

For the aioli:

Blend the egg yolks, apple, lemon juice and garlic in a food processor or blender. Blend in 3/4 cup of oil then slowly add in the other 3/4 cup as it blends. If it is getting too thin you can stop adding some of the oil. Salt and pepper to taste.


Enjoy!

xx
Laine

New Baby Soupy, Cash!

Hey Ya'll... Here are pics of baby Cash (Melissa and Keith's first born) wearing the bibs we gave them at Feb Soup club! So cute. It looks like little Raoul (their true first born) couldn't resist getting into the action. I don't blame him, it's very 2009. Congratulations to Melissa and Keith! We all look forward to meeting your bundle of joy.

Chayote and Carrot Ribbon Salad

I didn't have an actual recipe, so I'm just gonna do the eyeball method.

2 chayote squash
1 carrot
1/4 of a red onion
Olive oil
lemon juice
Salt
Pepper
2tsp Fresh dill
Siracha (optional)
Truffle oil (optional)

Shred the Chayote squash into long pieces. You can also cut them into thin strips about the size the thickness of a spaghetti noodle. Create carrot ribbons by taking a peeler and peeling of ribbons of carrots. Thinly cut onion to match the texture of the carrot ribbons and chayote shreds. Place all the shreds into a bowl.

Chop up the fresh dill. Add as much as you like.

Squeeze lemon on the salad. Then drizzle some olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Squeeze some Siracha on the salad to taste. Drizzle a little truffle oil to taste. The last two steps are optional. It adds a little heat and woodiness to the salad.

Chill. Serve. Eat. Enjoy

x jen