roasted cauliflower soup and white asparagus risotto

Tuesday, January 20, 2009 USA: Inauguration Day for Barack Obama. A national day of celebration after 8 long years of wrong choices for the nation. ani is now a nontraditional adult student (free spouse tuition) after becoming a victim of the economic downturn of 2008 leading to her well deserved sabbatical after 20 years as a wage slave, with no classes this day (Italian II four days a week!), while bob's nonteaching day this semester is also Tuesday. The day provides enough inspiration to want to eat well at dinner. A cauliflower and some white asparagus (bought on sale!) sit in the fridge waiting for some creative applications. Google comes to the rescue on our wireless living room laptop (bob) and netbook (ani) devices. (Parallel computing?) Truffle turns out to be the key choice word for both our selections from the hit list.

Our recent roasted cauliflower risotto prejudiced us towards the roasted cauliflower soup, with its simplicity and truffle twist. The combination of arugula, truffles and bacon (which we read as pancetta) in Emeril's salad caught our eye as well, but with risotto on our minds (another Emeril hit), we decided to adapt it to a risotto.

There were a few inches of snow on the ground, and bob had to make a last minute trip to Carlino's for the pancetta and arugula, but not finding arugula pushed him on to Whole Foods afterwards. Meanwhile ani began the dishes. The dependable implementer.

What an exciting day. Our first inaugural ball after dinner, virtually via our big screen LCD HDTV. Well fed. A slight white wine buzz. Hopeful. How will all this turn out? Time will tell.

roasted cauliflower soup

ingredients

roasting stuff

1 head of cauliflower, cleaned and floretted, pre-boiled till somewhat tender

1 1/2 onions, cut into wedges

6 cloves of garlic, peeled

extra virgin olive oil and/or olive oil spray

fillers

1 large potato, peeled and cubed

5 c veggie broth

finishers

1/4 t nutmeg (freshly ground if you have it)

salt and pepper to taste

4 drops truffle oil (or use truffle salt, decrease ordinary salt)

paprika dusting on each serving

instructions

1. Prepare the cauliflower and boil it till slightly but not overly tender.
2. Prepare the onions and garlic.
3. Put the cauliflower florets, onions and garlic in a nonstick roasting pan, spray them with olive oil and drizzle a bit more, then bake at 400° F for about 30-40 minutes.
4. Meanwhile boil the cubed potatoes in the veggie broth until tender.
5. Then combine the roasted veggies with the potato veggie broth and puree with a hand blender.
6. Add the finishers (add truffle salt/oil sparingly!) and remove from heat.
7. Serve with a dusting of paprika over each bowl.

notes

1. Fat-Free Vegan Kitchen, Roasted Cauliflower Soup by Susan V. Just what we were looking for and the truffle twist appealed to us immediately.
2. Oops, our truffle oil turned out to be Mediterranean dressing with truffle flavor, so we went with our truffle salt instead.
3. The "netbook" hits the market in a bigger way this year 2008-2009, a compromise between laptops and hand held computing devices. We choose the Acer Aspire One with 6 cell battery (6-7 hours battery life) to travel with more safely and comfortably than the heavy laptop. Convenient for wireless living room computing in two.
4. Illustrations available.

white asparagus risotto

ingredients

rice

1 1/2 c arborio rice

soffritto and flavor ingredients

2 T extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 oz (1 thick slice, at least 1/8 in) pancetta, chopped finely

1 lb white asparagus, cut into 3/4 in lengths

1/2 c dry white wine

finishers

2 T butter

salt and pepper to taste

optional truffle salt/oil to taste (oops, ani decided to go without because of the previous recipe)

1/2 c freshly grated parmigiano

a few handfuls of washed real arugula

freshly ground pepper and parmigiano on each serving

instructions

1. This is a standard risotto. Start by putting a teapot on the burner for the veggie broth.
2. Prepare the onion and asparagus, chop the pancetta.
3. Sauté the onion and pancetta in the olive oil.
4. Add in the chopped asparagus and wine and evaporate off a bit.
5. Then stir in the rice and mix it up for a couple minutes. Or should we have waited with the wine for this step?
6. Add a cup of the boiling water with the appropriate amount of veggie broth additive for 2-3 cups total.
7. Continue the risotto boiling water addition 1/2 c at a time for about 18 minutes until the rice is done (al dente test).
8. Remove from the heat and mix in the butter, salt, pepper, optional truffle stuff and cheese, then dump the arugula on top and leave covered for at least 5 minutes while it wilts.
9. Stir the arugula into the risotto mixture and serve with freshly ground pepper and parmigiano on each serving.

notes

1. Warm Asparagus with Crispy Bacon, Arugula with White Truffle, Lemon and Parmigiano-Reggiano by Emeril Lagasse. The combination of ingredients, with bacon morphed to pancetta, appealed to us, but so did the idea of a white asparagus risotto (another Emeril search hit) that had popped up in the search list, so we adapted. Again truffles, the selling point.
2. Unfortunately the dependable implementer ani dropped the truffle twist here. (Artistic license.) Oh well, it was good anyway. bob would be hopeless in the kitchen without ani.
3. Illustrations available.