Sopa de espárragos verdes

A warm Spanish soup today :

This month :

Blog-checking lines: Our November Daring Cooks’ hostess was Begoña, who writes the beautiful blog, Las recetas de Marichu y las mías. Begoña is from Spain and didn’t want to go with the more common challenges of paella or gazpacho, she wanted to share with us another very popular recipe from Spain that we don’t see as often called Sopa Castellana which is a delicious bread soup!

(more here)

Besides the classic (with a complicated broth), there was an asparagus version that I’ve preferred.

I combine the 2 recipes and changed… well, here is my broth, based on a grilled onion, with stalks of turnip, cloves, laurel, thyme, rosemary, a dry mushroom and chick peas.

In the South of France, this type of simple bread soup existed too. Particularly aigo boulido in Provence, so my impression is garlic is the main ingredient.

It’s the season of frozen green asparagus. Always.

The soup with the bread.

Poached quail egg. A similar soup with one egg is called “bouillabaisse borgne” one-eyed bouillabaisse.

So we have a 4 eye monster soup.

Mmmm, it’s very filling.

Oya imo taro on green sauce béchamel

The “parent” of 里芋 satoimo (Japanese taro) are on the market, they are called 親芋 oyaimo parent potato. That’s not classic sauce béchamel, but the texture is similar.
Let’s start with the beans, well the side dish :

Making pattzuki bean patties with azuki, miso, sesame, onion, parsley, kabocha skin. It is spiced by turmeric (very visible here) and paprika powder plus a few chili flakes.

Pan-fried.

The redness comes while cooking. Served with leaves of komatsuna.

Oya imo, a big taro.
Here is a photo of family of 親芋 oyaimo, the parent with its kids and grand-kids :

from this blog いきもの　は　おもしろい！

I cut and peeled a thick slice, boiled till tender.

The sauce is green as it contains lots of fresh parsley.

Fry minced onion, garlic, feet of shiitake mushroom. Blend together silky tofu, white wine, a tbs of potato starch. Add into the pan. Season with salt, pepper. Simmer.
Let cool and pass in the blender with 2 volumes of fresh parsley per volume of sauce. Reheat slowly before serving.

The oyaimo with sauce and steamed stalks of komatsuna.

An axoa with 1, 2, 3, 4 peppers…

Another Basque dish, to match the cakes. It’s called axoa, and you say that : “ashowa” like ” Ah ! shhh ! wah ! “. Because it’s …mmm, and you never make enough of it.

The name would refer to hashing, the meat, the veggies…

Veal is more common. I’ve used pork. To compensate the absence of the famous Espelette pepper for which this dish was invented, I’ve mixed :
-fresh long green sweet peppers
-fresh red paprika
-a bit of frozen hot Korean red chili
-some paprika powder

That’s ready :

That goes well with garlic flavored potatoes.

Bouille bouille bouillabaisse

The humble soup dish. This version is really frugal, made with fish leftovers that some people would discard and cheap veggies. The meal is still gorgeous. That’s the magic of the kitchen.

With fish heads and bits they don’t use for sashimi. Keep away the cuts with meats on them.

The first step is to make a soup by simmering the unusable parts with onion, garlic, herbs, tomato, salt, a little olive oil. Then passing gives a light broth. Blending, then passing gives a thick fish soup.

2 batches of fish soup to stock in the fridge.

Reheat soup with potatoes, more veggies, herbs, garlic…I’ve added paprika, red bell pepper, saffron.

Add the fish at the end.

It cooks quickly.

Fish and veggies make the main dish. And the first dish is this scarlet soup :

Black vinegar bell peppers on polenta, and garlic tofu dices

The sourness and crispiness of the veggies contrasts with the soft heaviness and sweetness of the polenta…

Yellow and red paprika peppers, and green sweet long chili. With a young onion, I made a stir-fry, flavored with garlic and olive oil.

Soft polenta (microwaved).

I cooked the tofu with the veggies before making the sauce, it’s nicely flavored with garlic. Added dry chili pepper (fried together with the tofu), black pepper, paprika powder and salt on top.