{"id":2304,"date":"2012-05-18T20:06:37","date_gmt":"2012-05-19T00:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/?p=2304"},"modified":"2012-05-18T20:06:37","modified_gmt":"2012-05-19T00:06:37","slug":"hot-and-cold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/?p=2304","title":{"rendered":"Hot and Cold"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re in that transition between spring and summer. Hot days, cool nights. Tonight’s supper was that same hot and cool.<\/p>\n

I made chilled asparagus soup. The asparagus is still coming on ferociously and I had a pound to do something with. Chilled soup is pretty light, so I made some parmesan croutons to go with it. And the soup is pretty mellow, so I made some fiery grilled shrimp to round it out. Spring and summer, cool and hot. It was perfect.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Grilling Shrimp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The shrimp were marinated with cloves of smashed garlic. I looked at those cloves and thought they’d be good grilled too. So I stuck them on the end of the skewers. But they weren’t all that tasty. Since they were smaller than the shrimp they didn’t contact the grill. Maybe over a charcoal grill?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Whole Package<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The entire meal (somebody should’ve wiped the rim of the soup bowl before snapping a picture!). It was a wonderful combination. The soup was light and smooth and tasted like fresh asparagus. The shrimp was fiery and unctuous. The parmesan croutons were salty and crunchy.<\/p>\n

It was all delightful, and while it took a bit of work in advance, to put it together at meal time took almost no effort. <\/p>\n

The recipes.<\/p>\n

\n

Chilled Asparagus Soup<\/b><\/p>\n

Enough for 2 with leftovers for lunch the next day<\/i><\/p>\n

About 1\/2 cup white or yellow onion, roughly diced
\n2 ribs celery, roughly diced
\n3 cloves garlic, smashed
\nSalt
\nAbout 1 pound asparagus, roughly chopped into pieces
\n2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and roughly diced
\n1 quart chicken or vegetable stock<\/p>\n

Put a splash of olive oil in a sauce pan and add the onion, celery and garlic. Season with salt and cook on medium heat until the vegetables are soft, about 8 to 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

Add the asparagus. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the potatoes and the stock. Add salt to taste. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

Let the soup cool, then puree in a blender. If you want it really smooth, strain through a mesh strainer.<\/p>\n

Taste and add more salt if needed. Chill for several hours or overnight.\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Parmesan Croutons<\/b><\/p>\n

Slices of French or Italian bread sliced about 1\/2 inch thick. How many to make depends on how big your loaf is. How thick is to your taste. Thicker is chewier, thinner is crunchier. 1\/2 inch is fairly chewy.<\/p>\n

Olive oil
\nSalt
\nPepper
\nFreshly grated parmesan cheese. I’m not a snob, really, but don’t use Kraft from a shaker.<\/p>\n

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
\nPut the bread slices on a cookie sheet and brush with olive oil
\nSprinkle with salt and pepper and a generous amount of parmesan cheese
\nCook until browned, around 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them, they’ll go from pale to burned in a few minutes at the end.\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Grilled Shrimp<\/b><\/p>\n

Use about 8 to 10 31-40 count shrimp per person<\/i><\/p>\n

16 to 20 31-40 count shrimp
\n1\/2 cup olive oil
\n1\/4 cup fresh lemon juice
\n2 sprigs thyme
\n2 cloves garlic, smashed
\n1 small shallot, sliced thin (red onion, scallion, white onion, whatever, it doesn’t matter)<\/p>\n

Mix the shrimp and ingredients together and refrigerate an hour or 2 or 3.<\/p>\n

Spice mix<\/p>\n

You don’t need to be precise here.<\/p>\n

1\/2 t paprika
\n1\/2 t cayenne (a bit spicy, cut this back if you don’t like it hot)
\n1\/2 t mustard powder (also a bit spicy)
\n1\/4 t thyme
\n1\/4 t salt
\n1\/4 t oregano<\/p>\n

Put the shrimp on a skewer and sprinkle the spice mix over evenly.
\nGrill about 3 minutes per side on a hot grill pan or charcoal or gas grill\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re in that transition between spring and summer. Hot days, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cooking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}