Lettuce Soup, Scottish Farl, Leftover Pasty Pasta Alfredo, Blue Corn Bread

Lettuce Soup
We've been getting a lot of  lettuce of various types in our weekly SWFL produce boxes.  To avoid any of it going to waste, I found a lettuce soup recipe, naturally!

1 cup mixture of diced Onion, Scallions, Shallots
1 large clove Garlic
8 cups (3/4 lb) chopped Lettuce - any kind, everything except the root end
3/4 cup peeled, diced Potato (any kind)
1/4 Tbsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Coriander
pinch of Salt
3 cups Water

Saute the onion mixture and garlic until softened.  Add the spices.  Add the potato, lettuce and water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes or until the potato is soft.

Puree the soup, return it to the pot, and simmer to thicken a bit.  Add a splash of cornstarch slurry if needed.  Serve with crusty bread like the Scottish Farl below.


Scottish Farl 
Fardel  (pronounced without much d) in the Scots tongue means "a fourth".  And that's the way you slice this loaf before cooking -- almost into fourths.  A Farl can be any quickbread round like a bannock or oatcakes. 

This Farl is similar to Irish Soda Bread, except here you use  unbleached or white flour rather than whole wheat.   Or think of it as a giant buttermilk biscuit!  You can cheat slightly and use Self Rising Flour as I did, too.  This recipe comes together quick and easy.

3-1/2 cups Self Rising Flour (or AP flour with 3 tsp Baking Soda added)
1 tsp Salt
3 Tbsp soft Butter
1 Tbsp Caraway seed (optional)
1 cup Buttermilk, or whole milk with juice of half a lemon added
Oatmeal (uncooked) for rolling (optional)

Preheat oven to 375.   Flour a pie pan to bake the bread in.

Cut the butter and flour together by stirring with a fork.  Add the buttermilk and stir to combine, adding a bit more milk or flour as needed.  Knead the dough in the bowl -- just to bring it together into a unified whole.  Make into a ball, then roll the ball in some uncooked oatmeal and place it in the pie pan.  Slice deep (almost all the way through) in a cross.  Bake for 40-45 minutes or more until the loaf is GB&D and  spread wide open like a flower. 

WOW!  This is great craic as the Scots would say!!  The basic taste and texture is that of a buttermilk biscuit, with the caraway seed as a refreshing taste kick that really sets this bread apart.  I'll be making this a lot more, you bet!

Tear and Share, or Be Nice and Slice -- your choice!  Don't forget more butter...


Leftover Pasty-Filling Alfredo
Shout out to my Louisiana WFC competitor Chef friend Susanne Duplantis, author of  the popular  Make Over My Leftover blog and frequent TV chef in her home state.

Here's what I did with the leftover filling from my Mother's Day Dinner Pasties -- salmon, shrimp, potato, rutabaga and peas.    I added some chopped mushrooms too.

Cook up some pasta.  While that's getting underway, make a white roux and thin it out with half & half or whole milk.   Add the leftover filling, and simmer until it thickens.  Pour over the cooked, drained pasta, toss and serve.

Blue Corn Bread
Some time ago I scored a small bag of Masa Harina Azul -- that's blue corn masa flour if you don't speak Spanish much.  All the flavor or yellow masa harina -- that "corn tortilla flavor" but made from blue corn.  I made blue corn tortillas from the flour, and baked blue corn tortilla chips too.  This time I decided to try a blue cornbread.

1 cup Masa Harina Azul or regular masa if you can't find the blue
1 cup AP or Cake Flour
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
pinch of Salt
1/4 cup Honey (I'm still using up that mega jar of Manuka Honey) 
1 + cup Whole Milk or Half & Half

Preheat the oven to 425F.  Line the bottom of a 9" cake pan with parchment paper and grease the insides.

Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Add the wet ingredients and stir to make a batter.     Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30-45 minutes to an internal temperature of 190-200F.  

The first time I made this, I cooked it only to time, and the result was rubbery and not cooked through.  I'm convinced baking needs to be done to a temperature, not a time!

Cool the round in the pan for a few minutes, then plate and slice.

This cornbread doesn't rise very much because of the high corn flour content, but the result is really tasty.   

Next time I'll make it with Self-Rising flour to see if that makes a difference in the rise of the loaf.