Making Soup, Racing Pigeons

I mentioned that yesterday we drove to Barrie’s Asparagus Farm and I bought some more asparagus. 4 lbs. actually.
I immediately chopped up two pounds of the fresh asparagus and added a little onion and some chicken stock to the pan in order to make the base for some more soup.

I cooked this until tender, not more than 3 minutes, I allowed it to cool somewhat and blended it. The picture looks grey, but I assure you the resulting purée is green.

This purée can now be frozen until I  want to do the rest of the soup, or I can go to the next steps of making a roux, turning it into a white sauce and then adding the remaining ingredients to make Barrie’s Asparagus Soup. I posted the recipe at the link. I actually ended up finishing it off and dividing it into meal portions and freezing.

I just found a headline about a record sale price for a racing pigeon, $400,000. For a bird?? I had no idea pigeon racing was such a big business. It was a bird bred in Belgium where, I read, the best racing birds are bred. It was sold to China where, apparently it will be used for breeding. The pigeon’s name was, appropriately, Bolt.  There is a headline on the same page about pigeon racing being Hamilton’s least known sport. Certainly news to me and Hamilton is only a few miles away. Come to think of it we used to see pigeons flying morning and night round here, presumably racing birds. I know there are lots of racing pigeons in England, didn’t realise there were any here. A lot of the top prices for Belgian birds are paid by China or Taiwan. If they buy a lot of the fastest birds, I would have thought they could have bred faster birds by now.

Last night we decided to finish off the Thai Chicken which I posted yesterday. This time, instead of using our indoor/outdoor grill we used the broiler and this time, the meat didn’t get scorched. Much better.

As you will see, I have posted a new badge which links to Stephen Tremp's blog, he is one of the hosts of the Get Healthy blog hop which takes place on May 29. If you would like to join in with any information about what you have been doing to improve your health or to maintain it, click on the badge and there is a Linky List where you can add your blog. Stephen explains it all as do all the other hosts on their websites.

This is a delightful salad and yet I cannot find a picture. Guess I should make it and photograph it, but home photos of food never look as good. Well mine don't at least.


Asparagus and Endive Salad

1 lb fresh asparagus , trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2 tsp grated orange peel
1 Tbs Juice, orange, fresh
2 Tbs seasoned rice vinegar
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs small shallots , minced
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/8 tsp black pepper
8 oz Belgian endive, fresh, head , cut lengthwise into 1/4 inch strips (2 heads)

1. Place 1/2 inch of water at the bottom of a 12 inch pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Add in asparagus and cook until tender yet crisp, about 2 minutes. Place in strainer, rinse under cold water, drain, and pat dry with paper towels.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the orange peel, orange juice, vinegar, oil, shallots, sugar, salt, mustard, and pepper until well combined.

3. Add the asparagus and endive to the bowl with the dressing. Mix well to evenly coat and serve.

Servings: 4

Tips
Try using a sugar substitute instead of regular sugar.
Source
Source: dLife

Have a great day