Salad Soup

Man, this time of year is fat with optimism. It's on the leaner side with food, though the greens are coming along handsomely, and we're lousy with wild foragables right now, so a good supplement can be found in my first-ever hunk of homemade prosciutto. It's ready, because it's only half a ham, and mostly skinless, so it dried quite quickly. It's also bone-in, meaning it's going to be tricky to slice it well into paper-thin slices, so I'm just sort of hacking it to different thicknesses depending on whether I want a sandwich or a soffrito. Last night I made a whopping big pot of stock from all of the smoked chicken carcasses, which is also important to know about later on.

Last night, it was for the very first of our asparagus. Turgid and purple (it's called Purple Passion™) it's bursting forth with wild abandon from the bed on the North side of the garden. I cut eight spears, and in a day or two there should be as many more. Then it'll be a free-for-all for a while until I finally leave them alone in June. I wrapped them in ham and gave them a quick sear on two sides before squeezing half a lemon into the pan, adding a ladle of smoked chicken stock, and covering it for a minute or two to let them steam.

















Next up, the nine-millionth iteration of noodle soup. Smoked chicken broth, saifun, the remnants of the asparagus sauce (frugality ftw) and a heaping mound of thinnings from the red kale and spinach in the garden, seasoned with some soy sauce, made for a light yet hearty bowl of dinner. I got a bunch of things planted today, too, after finishing my article; they're late, but we'll be rolling in brassicas come June.