Reader: I have married a man who is 98% averse to my cooking. He has many things to say about this, but the bottom line is: he won't eat it. I tried cooking to his tastes, but that run from one end of the 7-11 aisles to the other. And there they end. Refried beans in a can? Yes. White corn chips? Yes. Homemade salsa? Yes I'll give a bit of credit here, he does make a pretty good salsa. But a family cannot live on salsa alone. Vanilla ice cream? Yes. Lemonade? Yes.
I am not sure where this diet came from and I'm not certain that I need to find out. Our children don't do much better. He brings home white bread from the store and they go crazy for it. I slather it with butter and hope for the best. All I know is that I cook and hope that at least one other person (than myself) will eat it.
Tonight I did well. Very well, indeed. I served Asparagus and Pancetta soup with Black Pepper and Rice. AND THEY ATE IT!! THEY ATE ALL OF IT!!! I'm still in shock. Before I pass out from crazy amazement, I'll share this S&P award winning family recipe with you.
This is a picture of the empty(!) pot. It's all that's left! Thanks, mom, for the pot!
- serves 4 - from The
Zuni Cafe Cookbook
Ingredients
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups diced yellow onions
Salt
1/4 cup white rice *I used brown rice*And they still ate it!!
3 1/2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup water
8 ounces trimmed asparagus (woody ends snapped off)
3 to 4 ounces pancetta, finely minced
freshly ground black pepper
Procedure
1. In a heavy 4 quart saucepan, heat half the oil (2 tablespoons) over medium heat, then add the onions and sweat gently for about ten minutes until translucent but not browned, stirring regularly.
2. In the meantime, dice the pancetta and slice the asparagus on an angle into 1/8-inch slices. Don't worry too much about uniform width, since the resulting unevenness in cooking will add pleasing textural differences.
3. Add the rice, stock, and water to the onions, then bring to a simmer and cook, covered tightly, until the rice is tender, 15-20 minutes depending upon the type of rice used.
4. In a 12-inch skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat, then add the asparagus slivers and pancetta and stir to coat. Cook untouched until the edges begin to color, then stir and cook again, untouched, repeating the process until everything has nice color and has shrunk by about 1/3.
5. Add the pancetta/asparagus mixture to the soup, along with incredible amounts of black pepper. Boil for 1 minute and serve with crusty bread.
**I also topped the girls' soup with a nice sharp cheese, grated and about a 1/2 T. of butter. Viola! They loved it. I'm clearly in awe.
Oh, my heart goes out to you. That would be unbearable for me - picky eaters are a special pet peeve of mine and Andrew's and we count ourselves soooooooo lucky to not have to tackle that with eachother.
What a triumph - that soup sounds delicious! I'm on the verge of posting a recipe for a not-macaroni and cheese recipe that has pancetta.
Posted by: Mary Jo, Five Green Acres | 04/14/2010 at 08:58 AM