Recipe 35: Beet, Swiss Chard, Goat Cheese, and Walnut Risotto

This pot was obviously too small to
everyone but me. 

This recipe is a classic example of the Paperblog Princess underestimating the size of a pot.  If you have two sizes of Le Creuset in which to make this dish, I encourage you, go big.  It may not fill the pot.  But it will not try to escape your too small Le Creuset.  Be safe, you guys.  I make messes so you don't have to.  I took this recipe on the road to the Asphalt Kitchen's kitchen, where we used a billion of our farmshare beets and chard to make this.  We all thought it was just okay.  I think the major problem in our case was under seasoning (we needed way way more salt), not chopping the chard finely enough (possibly using too much), and going a little rogue trying to use as many beets and as much chard as we could.  Follow the darn recipe.  And make sure to boil and peel the beets before adding them to the recipe.  Unless you like crunchy uncooked beets, you weirdo.  The cook time in the original recipe is not enough to cook them through entirely.  As with all risotto's, make sure to serve it almost immediately or it will dry out.  Because ours went awry, I've barely tweaked the original October, 2003 Cooking Light recipe.  Don't get fancy.  Follow the recipe.  Seriously. 

Murrrrder. 
They call me the Dexter of the kitchen.

Beet, Swiss Chard, Goat Cheese, and Walnut Risotto
via Cooking Light (October, 2003)

Allegedly serves 4.

Beet, Swiss Chard, Goat Cheese, and Walnut Risotto

Recipe 38: Roasted Eggplant Soup

It became abundantly clear to me in, uh...March, that it was unlikely that I'd be able to complete the Le Creuset 52 Challenge this year, especially considering I was going away for the entire summer.  I definitely couldn't bring it to Chile with me; seeing as part of my apartment intruder-attack plan includes flinging Blue at said apartment-intruders head, I'm pretty sure it counts as a weapon of mass destruction (especially if you are a vegetable inside it, badoom ching! It's a good thing I make myself snicker...)  As per, I'm off on a tangent, so let us return to our regularly scheduled programming:  my new plan is to eventually get to the 52 recipes mark, as originally planned.  It may just take two calendar years though.  But we'll get there!  

BB: Before Blending

In other news, I've been sharing a farm share with the biggest little soccer fans this side of the Charles, the chef and publicity guy behind the fabulous Asphalt Kitchen.  Except since I wasn't here, they have been eating drowning in my half of the share for most of the summer.  Bean stopped by my first day back in town with a rather large shopping bag quite literally bursting with veggies.  It's a little overwhelming.  Luckily, the bountiful crop of veggies this time of year have forced me to crack open the cookbooks and start making the recipes I've been earmarking.  This week I invited the Asphalt Kitchen over to make Smitten Kitchen's Roasted Eggplant Soup.  We more or less followed the recipe, although I added some cayenne, cumin, and corriander to it (as suggested), and did have to substitute rosemary for thyme because I thought I had some and didn't.  Oops. 

AB: After blending

Everyone loved this soup.  Everyone but me.  Don't get me wrong, I really, really, really liked it.  I just found it incredibly bright, as though it needs something to bring it a little more down to earth.  Next time I make it (and I will, it is incredibly easy and uses up sooooo many of my farmshare veggies), I plan on trying some of the suggestions in the comments by either adding tahini or paprika.  Did anyone who has tried this recipe or some variant find the same? How do you do it differently?  Suggestions on how to make it more earthy, por favor!

Roasted Eggplant Soup
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, where it was adapted from Bon Appetit

Serves 4

Three kinds of cheese, two kinds of tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, green onions, and onions, all from Farmer Dave's farm, are visible in this one picture !