Cold Buster: Mexican Style Chicken Soup with Chiles

Up until about three days ago, I thought I'd actually escaped the cold season this year. Peef and I have both been healthy as horses. We scoffed at the stomach flu when it passed through town. We laughed in the face of a few dozen colds and breathed sighs of relieve when we got through both January and February without so much as a sniffle.

Of course, I should have known better than to think we were out of the woods already; after all, it's only March. There's still bits of snow on the ground here in Wisconsin, and the temperatures won't be steadily above 50ºF for another 3-4 weeks.

Sure enough, I woke up on Tuesday with the rumblings of a sore throat. I took a nice wopping dose of Vitamin C, as a precaution, but I chalked the scratchiness up to a rough night of snoring. Heh. By Wednesday, when the sniffles started settling in, I was pretty sure that something more than sleeping with my mouth open was to blame. And today... well, today I'm verifiably cold-ridden. Serves me right for getting all cocky and thinking my immune system was impenetrable.

On the up-side, feeling under the weather always gets me in the mood for a nice big bowl of soup. And I've got a pretty fantastic version to share with you today. This actually started out with the intention of being an easy-peasy tortilla soup... but the direction turned a bit when I discovered a few stray dried chiles sitting around in the back of my fridge.

Mmm. Chiles. There weren't many of them, so they'd be perfect thrown into my soup. But, the process for rehydrating them would add a bit of time to the soup prep, and I wasn't really sure I was up to it. But, after taking a nice big whiff of their rich, smoky aroma, I pulled them out of the bag and tossed them into some warmed chicken broth and let them soak for a good 1/2 hour.
When they were sufficiently softened, I blenderized them into the smoothest puree I could manage.
And then, just to be safe, I threw the whole mess through a fine sieve to get out all the seeds and funky little bits that are inevitably left over.
I sauteed some onions & garlic, threw in a bit of cumin and some Mexican oregano. And then I turned up the heat a bit. When the pan was nice and hot, I threw in the chile puree all at once and let it sear nicely. I added some tomato sauce, and then let the sauce reduce a bit before I added the remaining ingredients -- some additional broth, a bay leaf, and some minced red bell pepper.
After the soup had simmered for a while, I also threw in about a 1/2 pound of shredded collard greens. After all, why not take the health benefits up a notch with a bit of leafy-green action?
By the time the greens were cooked and I'd thrown in some cooked chicken and a bit of frozen corn, the kitchen smelled positively irresistable. Between the smoky chiles and the savory broth, I was seriously feeling better already. I poured a nice big serving into a bowl, and stuffed my face down into it. *huff* This was some seriously good food for a person who started off feeling not-so-much like cooking.

A bit of avocado, a couple of crunchy tortilla strips, and a liberal dose of cilantro (mmm... antioxidents), and I was all set for dinner.
I don't know about your mother, but my mother sure didn't make chicken soup that tasted like this!

Mexican style Chicken Soup with Chiles



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Sunday Sammiches: Roasted Asparagus & Onion Panini

Spring has sprung. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself now that U.S. asparagus has shown up in the market.

Asparagus is one of the seasonal crops that we eat with gusto for a short time, and then relinquish at the end of the season -- so "asparagussed-out" that we are happy to have a long reprieve. Like the tomatoes of August, we crave them for months, eat them with abandon, and walk away from them when June hits.

At this time of the year, I really ought to start the countdown for fresh WI asparagus. After all, local produce offers so many benefits... but, I can't help myself. It's hard to resist when my winter palate starts to salivate over their crisp, green stalks. So, I have a tendency to break down and buy a few rounds of California spears.

I thought the first asparagus spears of the season deserved a special treatment, so Peef and I put our heads together. A sammich was probably the last thing on our minds, but then it occurred to us that a ham & swiss with asparagus might be seriously good. And why not make the sammich less about the ham and more about the asparagus while we were at it?? Peef agreed that the concept sounded good, so we got to work.

We happened to have a couple of light, fluffy Telera rolls on hand, along with some local gruyere, which I thought would make a nice match for the asparagus.
We chopped the asparagus into 2-3 inch pieces, and tossed it with some thinly sliced onion.And I made a lemon vinaigrette of sorts with a bit of lemon juice, some zest, a bit of olive oil, and some melted butter.
We tossed the vinaigrette with the asparagus & onions...
... and then threw everything into a hot oven to roast for 15-20 minutes.
Then we set to work on the sammiches -- first placing a few thin slices of gruyere on each bun...
Then, adding the ham...
We spread the top of the bun with a bit of basil pesto, and added a slice of regular Swiss cheese (for a bit of creaminess).
At this point, we closed the sammich up and threw her on the panini grill for a few minutes until the cheese got all nice and gooey.
We opened her back up again (you'll note the cheesy goodness all intermingling with the pesto and ham. yeeeum.)
And we loaded on the asparagus and onions.
This was going to be one happy little sammich.
Turned out to be kinda purty too, with a majority of the asparagus spears lining up for their photo op.
Seriously, these were some great sammiches. The Telera buns were the perfect texture -- soft in the middle, but crisp on the outside, and not too heavy so that they overwhelmed the asparagus. The cheese was creamy and flavorful. The asparagus was fresh and tender (NOT stringy) -- and the onions were ultra sweet from being roasted. The lemon gave everything a burst of freshness, while the basil pesto brought forward a great herbal note. Surprisingly, although the ham was a nice touch, I'd venture a guess that these would be just as amazing as a vegetarian sammich.

Like "spring in a bun."
Try 'em for yourself!!

Roasted Asparagus & Onion Panini (with or without ham)



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