Last night's dinner was A-themed but really nothing to announce over the webs: Arby's and Ales (yes, sometimes I eat fast food too, just like you, so don't be an ass about it.). Tonight, I decided to actually make something again. Adhering to the theme, I made Asparagus Avgolemono with Dill and Asiago Crostini. Greek with a little Italian on the side. That's what I call international cuisine. Before you go assuming I've completely lost it and have started to make up words in order to have a-named menu items, avgolemono is a real thing, even wikipedia says so, which is the most reliable source I could think of to prove that I didn't invent this word or dish. Maybe you can think of another. Avgolemono is a soup consisting of egg, lemon juice, broth and other ingredients for flavor, in this case asparagus (also leeks, onion, and celery). Avgolemono can be served hot or cold, but cold soups are, mostly, disgusting and can become an odd consistency so I served mine hot. Also, because my brother is scared of cold soup. And, just to clear things up, Asiago is a real cheese too, from a real place of the same name. Proof.
Soup: A.
All in all it was a success. The soup (see fig. a, at right) blended to a nice, smooth consistency, although a bit thin at first, but upon further heating it was superb and thickened. There was a bit of a mishap during the blending process. While attempting to lock the pitcher onto the base I inadvertently unscrewed the bottom of the pitcher and lost a little liquid, but caught in time, and with the aid of my sous chef, salvaged dinner. The eggs didn't curdle and the result was a lovely light asparagus green soup, that tasted good as well. Note: Soup warrants A grade only when hot.
Crostini: A.
Toasty and tasty. The asiago cheese was a surprisingly complimentary taste to the soup. Simple but a nice side. Details you can't see: I brushed the breads with garlic olive oil before topping them with grated asiago.
This time I even made a dessert, of sorts, and after dinner snack, if you will. It's more of a breakfast bread, but it's not for the B weeks. It has A ingredients. I made mini Apricot Almond Loaves. Epicurious calls it 'gift bread.' I don't really know what that means, but it makes them sound fruit cakey and despite the presence of dried fruit (apricots), they really aren't like fruit cake, and by that I mean terrible. I do know I won't be giving them to anyone except myself.
Bread: A.
The bread has great flavor and a nice moist consistency. I Containing perfectly small diced dried apricots (compliments of my sous chef brother aggressively wielding an ulu knife [from Alaska!]) and slivered almonds, the bread has sweet and salty components, in addition to soft and crunchy elements for a taste that earns the A. The secret ingredient is Almond extract. Oh, and I omitted the icing, because it's bread, not a cupcake.
More to come on Ales and other A drinks I have been consuming these past two weeks in an upcoming post brought to you by the letter A.
Recipes: soup. bread.
