French Turnip Soup and Salmon Pinwhat?

I came across Soups and Sandwiches: Wholesome Ideas for Quick Lunches at the recent library sale. Every autumn the local library has a huge sale to reduce the books that rarely get checked out, and to allow the community to clean their shelves of books and load back up again for the long Michigan winter.

As soon as I entered the large annex, I headed straight to the cooking area and carefully picked out "the good stuff." This was one of the good books - though there were plenty of gourmet microwave books to be had if you were so gullible. Not me.

The French Turnip Soup on page 12 caught my attention, perhaps because it also included slices of white bread. I never buy white bread anymore. Ever.

Looking through the book, I also found some intriguing sandwich recipes, and settled on the Salmon Pinwheels on page 80. They looked beautiful and somewhat daunting. And they also called for white bread, which Ivan inspected.

The soup was really easy to prepare, though I have to say, once in the liquid, the bread transformed into something icky. Take a look at this:

Mmmmmmm gelatinous white bread.

At the same time I worked on Salmon Pinwheels. I just wanted to see if I could make them look nice. And, besides with all the butter involved, I was sure it would be worth it.

I used a rolling pin to flatten the bread, slather on the flavored butter, and top with smoked salmon. Then I rolled the whole thing up cigar style. And quickly understood why the recipe called for a large, uncut loaf of white bread: length would make a difference here.

I soldiered on and buttered the outside and rolled the whole thing around in chopped parsley. And had myself an aesthetic failure:

I made regular sandwiches with the remainder of the flattened bread, and served along with the turnip soup.

The parsley-covered roll was odd, kind of tickly to eat. Not a fan. But the regular sandwiches were yummy. I wish there was more flavor to them, like a mayonnaise or curry. The soup is fabulous, and you don't notice the funky white bread at all; if I'd used a good quality French white bread, this would be even better.

Both recipes adapted from Soups and Sandwiches: Wholesome Ideas for Quick Lunches.

Salmon Pinwheels (or Not)
2 slices white bread, crusts removed
1/3 cup butter, softened
3 tablespoons parsley, finely minced
1 scallion, finely diced
1 teaspoon lemon juice
a shake or so of cayenne pepper

Mix the butter and 1 tablespoon of the parsley with the scallion and cayenne pepper. Set aside.

If you want to attempt a cigar-shaped log, flatten the bread with a rolling pin. If you want a regular sandwich, don't bother. Either way, slather one side with smoked salmon and top with another piece of bread.

For the sandwich log, roll the bread kind of like a jelly roll. Then butter the outside and roll the whole thing around in parsley. The recipe in the book suggests that you wrap this in plastic wrap and chill two hours, then cut into small pinwheels. Too fussy for me!

You will have extra butter and smoked salmon left over, and will have to find some way to use it all up. I'm thinking a morning omelette or evening frittata might be the way to go.

French Turnip Soup
2 tablespoons butter
1 pound white turnips, peeled and diced
1 onion, chopped
5 cups stock - chicken or vegetable
4 slices white bread, crusts removed
4 oz green peas
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch nutmeg

Heat butter in large saucepan. Add turnips and onion, and cook 10 minutes or more until they begin to soften. Add stock and butter and simmer 25 minutes or until the turnups are soft to the fork. Puree. Add peas, season with salt and pepper and add nutmeg.

Havarti Me Timbers

I'm cooking from the brand new Tupelo Honey Cafe Cookbook and here's one of the easy recipes. Like most of the recipes, though, the Tupelo Honey chicken Sandwich with Havarti Cheese and Cranberry Mayonnaise does require some marinating time - preferably overnight. Otherwise, it's an easy and tasty recipe.

The Tupelo Honey Cafe Cookbook has a section called "Larder" where various and sundry staples used throughout the book are located. The recipe for Tupelo Honey Chicken marinade is in that section, and it's a piece of cake. Very tasty cake.

I mixed up some pineapple juice...err, crushed pineapple because I couldn't find any actual pineapple juice at my local store. So, I dumped crushed pineapple, olive oil, soy sauce, and minced garlic into a plastic bag and threw in two boneless skinnless chicken breasts. Then I mushed the bag around to get all ingredients mingling. I let that sit in the fridge all night (though I'm sure you could cut that time down.)

Marinating Chicken

The next night when I got home from work, I sauteed the chicken until nicely done. Actually, too done - it was dry and chewy. Cooking meat until perfectly done has always been a challenge for me. I sliced the chicken and set it aside.

The rest of the sandwich was a breeze. The cranberry mayonnaise is made with equal parts canned whole cranberry dressing and mayonnaise. This would be fabulous on a after-Thanksgiving sandwich.

Cranberry Mayonnaise

To finish the sandwich, I sliced some bread, added butter, spread the cranberry mayonnaise, added the chicken, sliced Havarti cheese, and added another dollop of cranberry relish. Beautiful!

Chicken Sandwich

Life's Nothing But A Mudcrutch Farm

This week I'm looking at a cookbook titled Backstage Pass: Catering to Music's Biggest Stars. It's filled with recipes made artists, crews, and entourages at various concerts venues near San Diego in the early to mid-1990s. I was excited to find the book and scanned the list of musicians.

I laughed at some of the hospitality and dressing room requirements. Van Halen, for example, asked for bars of Ivory soap; Jackyl, on the other hand, requestd a bar stool, shaved gerbil, and black Sharpie markers. Still others requested exceptional wine, witch hazel, Tootsie Rolls, and Mountain Valley water. The recipes were equally intriguing and the Mediterranean Island Sandwich with Island Vinaigrette on page 193 served at the Hollywood Bowl to Tom Petty and the HeartBreakers on the Wildflowers tour caught my attention.

First up, the vinaigrette. I mixed the lemon juice, red wine vinegar, basil, oregano, dijon mustard together then drizzled in the olive oil.

Vinaigrette

I set the vinaigrette aside to get the flavor going, and moved on to the sandwich proper.

Sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives, red onion, and cucumber

I also turned the tunes up, blaring Disc 2 from The Live Anthology and slipping into a bit of a fantasy.

I did not find "torpedo rolls" at my local supermarket. Heck I didn't even know what torpedo rolls were until I googled them. Most packages of rolls in my store are 8 to a pack - more than one person will ever need. I substituted an all natural country Italian bread called "Pan Bigio" and hoped for tasty sandwiches. I offered prayers to the powers of co-captain Mike Campbell's lead guitar for guidance. Campbell never seems to strike a wrong note, so perhaps the recipe would not fail.

As I slipped into Dreamville, Benmont Tench, adjusted his hat just so and said, "do the same with seasonings." He smiled and returned to his keyboards. I kept cooking.

I panicked briefly upon discovering a signifiant lack of lemon juice. I asked bassist Ron Blair if he thought the sandwich would still work. He said he was hungry, and hoped I'd carry on; after all, he reminded me, I had a meeting in a little over an hour and he had to get to the stage.

I chopped the vegetables quickly. But wait - should I drain my artichoke hearts and olives? I asked ace sideman Scott Thurston what he thought the best move would be. "Drain 'em," was all he said. So I did.

Drummer Steve Ferrone kept a beat while I chopped the Italian parsley. The parsley joined the veggies and posed for a pre-concert photo.The dressing adorned the veggies, gussing up the chopped items in stage gear. Meanwhile, in a different dressing room, the big cheese was getting prepared.

I sliced some bread and gently layered the veggies and dressing, and waited for the cheese.

The Tom Fetty Cheese.

I snapped some photos as the band walked to the stage. The same combination offered several ways, different keys, always tasty.

All in all, a great night at the concert, err dinner table. Too bad it wasn't in the middle of the summer with the sun going down and the chords of Runnin' Down A Dream ringing in my ears.