Recipe: Asparagus and cheese muffins + Asparagus ends soup

After a few days of eating asparagus, I've gathered up quite a lot of asparagus ends (which I usually throw away because they're woody and fibrous).  I've always felt that it's wasteful to throw them away, so this time I will be making a soup with them.

To go with the asparagus soup, I've also made some savoury asparagus and cheese muffins. The original recipe uses Cheshire cheese, which I couldn't find in the supermarkets here, so I substituted with Cheddar cheese. These were really easy to make, a simple mix-and-bake recipe.

This is only my second time making savoury muffins, but we really enjoyed them. I was especially surprised that Baby D ate 2 whole ones (cheese-lover!). I like how the asparagus stems peek out of the muffins, which gives it an elegant appearance. These muffins were moist, with a lovely top crust and pretty substantial. They're best eaten warm with some cold butter.

For the soup, the asparagus ends are boiled with the chicken stock, and then pureed using a hand blender. This then needs to be sieved to remove the inedible fibrous bits. Using asparagus ends, the soup was pale green in colour (my head went "oh-no!") - I've made asparagus soup before with the stalks and it was a vivid green. I googled and saw other asparagus ends soup images which was a similar shade, so this colour is perfectly normal... phew.

Despite the colour, the asparagus flavours really came through. The soup was silky smooth, creamy and comforting. So next time, don't discard those woody ends... they make a good asparagus soup.

Asparagus and cheese muffins
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from Good Food Channel
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 25-30 minutes
Makes 9

Ingredients
9 asparagus, woody ends removed, stems cut into 1cm pieces, leave the tips a little longer
200 g self-raising flour
100 g cheddar cheese
62g butter
1 spring onion (green parts only), snipped
75ml milk
50ml natural yogurt
1/2 tsp English mustard
1 egg

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (no fan) and line a muffin tin with 9 cases.

2. In a large bowl, mix the flour with the cheese. Melt the butter and pour into a jug. Add the spring onions, milk, yogurt, mustard and eggs into the melted butter. Mix well until combined and season generously with salt and pepper.

3. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the flour and cheese, and stir in the chopped asparagus stems. Be careful not to over mix and stop as soon as the mixture is combined.

4. Spoon the mixture evenly between the muffin cases and push an asparagus tip into the middle of each. Bake in the oven from 25-30 minutes until golden. Best eaten hot out of the oven, spread with a little cold butter.

Note: I halved the original recipe, to yield 9 muffins. I could not get Cheshire cheese here, so I substituted with Cheddar cheese.

Creamy asparagus ends soup
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from here
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20-25 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients
300g asparagus ends
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 onion, finely chopped
Salt
2-3 tbsp cream
A knob of butter

To serve (optional)
Asparagus tips
Parmesan cheese
Bacon


1. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and add onions and cook for 2 minutes until they have softened. Make sure that they do not brown. 

2.Then, add the chicken stock and asparagus ends and cook for 15 minutes until softened.

3. Remove from heat and use a hand blender to puree the asparagus ends. Pass the soup through a sieve to remove the inedible fibrous bits. Place back into saucepan, and season with salt and pepper, simmer at very low heat and add the cream. Serve immediately.

* I'm linking this post to Little Thumbs Up (May 2014: Milk) hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House.


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Recipe: Lamb Rogan Josh

Without a doubt, lamb rogan josh is our all-time favorite Indian curry dish. I was first introduced to rogan josh, a signature Kashmiri dish when I was living in the UK and whenever we went on our Indian date nights, we would order this without fail. It is an aromatic lamb dish which was brought to Kashmir (northern India) by the Mughals, whose cuisine was in turn influenced by Persian cuisine.

Since returning home to KL, I have only found a couple of restaurants that serve rogan josh. I finally summoned up enough courage to try making this curry at home and to my delight, it turned out really well. This curry was surprisingly very easy to make - it just requires some time to simmer down to a lovely consistency. I would advise making this at least 6 hours in advance (I made mine at 10am and served it for dinner) to give the flavours a chance to develop.

To complete our Indian-themed dinner, Hubby was given the task of making the naan bread to go with the rogan josh, and I also made some mango lassi. Rogan josh is a pretty mild curry, fragrant and packed full of flavour, so even the kids loved this a lot. The meat was really tender too. This recipe yields an authentic-tasting rogan josh, just like the ones we used to have in British Indian restaurants. Absolutely fantastic!

I was glad to see my whole family enjoying this, and both my husband and mum hailed this as "the best curry they have ever had" - such high praise, it definitely put me on cloud-nine. Would I make it again? Definitely YES!

Thumbs up from Baby C! She had 2 naan breads to soak up the lovely curry sauce

It's OK to have a curry moustache ;D

Lamb Rogan Josh
Recipe adapted from Food & Wine - Chef Vikram Sunderam
Preparation time: 15 - 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 1/2 - 2 hours
Serves 4-5

Ingredients
1/4 cup canola oil
900g boneless lamb (or mutton) shoulder, cut into 1-inch pieces
Sea salt
2 onions, thinly sliced (about 3 cups)
2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp Madras curry powder
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 bay leaves
14-oz can tomato puree
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
2 cups water
1 tsp garam masala
Cilantro leaves, for garnish
Basmati rice and warm naan, for serving

1. In a large, enameled cast-iron casserole, heat the oil. Season the lamb with salt and cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, until the lamb is browned, about 8-10 minutes. Once browned, transfer to a plate using a slotted spoon.

Madras Curry Powder contains a blend of spices such as coriander, cumin, turmeric, chilli powder, red lentils, bay leaf, cardamom, fenugreek powder, cloves and more.

2. Add the onions to the casserole and cook over moderate heat until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Add the ginger, garlic, Madras curry powder, turmeric, cayenne pepper and bay leaves and cook for 2 minutes. Add the tomato, yogurt and water and bring to a boil. Season with salt.

3. Return the lamb and any juices to the casserole. Cover partially and simmer over low heat until the lamb is very tender and sauce has reduced to a thick-ish consistency, about 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Stir in the garam masala; cook for 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaves. Garnish with cilantro. Serve with rice or naan. Leftovers can be stored overnight in the fridge and reheated before serving.

Note: Madras curry powder can be purchased at Jaya Grocer if you are living in Malaysia. It can easily be purchased at any supermarkets in UK. If you want it to cook faster, then you can reduce the water to 1 cup and reduce cooking time to 1 hour.

Mango lassi to complete the experience

I am submitting this post to Asian Food Fest- Indian Subcontinent hosted by Chef and Sommelier.


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*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's Facebook page on 1 November 2014.