Concentrated Flavors

I wasn't gonna yammer about our anniversary meal last week, but now it has more context because I've made two soups in a row with very concentrated flavors.

Lobster Bisque

This was part of our anniversary meal, and as a penny pincher, I couldn't help but groan at the expense, but after eating what I wound up with– two small bowls of bisque made from a live two pound lobster cut into huge chunks (claws left whole) in a homemade stock cooked from the shells, flambéed with brandy, and made velvety with cream– I realized if you even found something this rich on a menu, you'd probably pay double for it and you wouldn't leave the place without dropping 5x more. Anyway, it was a very focused lobster flavor explosion.

*not my picture- it was too late to get a good one, but when I logged this recipe in my database, I searched hard for one that would be identical to what I would have captured had the sun still been up.
 

Silky Zucchini Soup

Also rich and velvety, this soup is similar in that it's a concentrated flavor, but opposite in that it only cost the seeds Kara planted in our back yard and it's incredibly healthy. It's little more than puréed zucchini and onion with some seasoning and a little broth. There's not much better of a way to taste garden-fresh zucchini. Eating the leftovers chilled. Mmmmm.

Carbonara

Zucchini Carbonara

Penne pasta with nearly two pounds of zucchini from our garden, smothered in carbonara sauce. This was sinful but delicious. I served it alongside a salad with more of our homegrown greens, and a light homemade vinaigrette.

Carbonara sauce is basically bacon, cream, egg yolks, cheese, and pepper (sounds like 4 of the 7 deadly sins). According to wikipedia, since the name is derived from carbonaro (the Italian word for charcoal burner), some believe the dish was first made as a hearty meal for Italian charcoal workers. In parts of the United States the etymology gave rise to the term "coal miner's spaghetti." Some even attribute its name to a secret society of revolutionaries in 1800s Italy called the Carbonari, or "Charcoal Men."

Food for thought...

 

 

Farm-to-Table

It's almost summer, so Kara's got more stuff growing than our usual–and heavily utilized–herb garden: tomatoes, zucchini, mesclun (mix of wild lettuces), strawberries, jalapeños, and we're trying for watermelon.

We did some harvesting today and here's our first meal. Kara's request.

Zucchini Frittata with Mozzarella, Parmesan, and Feta

Served with a salad of (mostly) our home-grown greens in a light vinaigrette, and fresh tomato slices (not ours- they're still green), all garnished with our chives.

Kara and I agreed the frittata was almost too light, even with all the cheeses, and needs some mushrooms and/or beef/sausage/bacon, but we were both scraping the gooey cheesy egg stuff that stuck to the skillet, and frittatas are so easy to make (just hard to turn out of the pan). I wish the greens were in focus in the pic because they're pretty, but the frittata looked yummiest from this angle.