Lets Call This Dish The Marco Polo - When East Meets West

Most of us know the story of Marco Polo - gone 24 years discovering Asia only to return to become imprisoned then released and became a wealthy merchant - but I don't think most knew he was a Virgo. Lets be clear that he was not the first to discover Asia but he was the one to leave the most detailed chronicles. I don't think anywhere in his writings will you find this delicious wild mushroom risotto with garlic shrimp and snow peas.

I went out to Chinatown today with one thing in mind - get what looks fresh and come home and make a nice lunch for a rainy New York Saturday. 

These big fat shrimp caught my eye and snow peas for a 67 cents a pound is always a nice price. I didn't want to just go the traditional route with steamed rice and I knew I had some dehydrated wild mushrooms and some Arborio rice so a meal was born.

A couple of pounds or so of snow crab can't hurt either. A dozen raw oysters were also knocked back but after I jabbed myself with the oyster knife I didn't feel like glamorizing those mollusks not one little bit.

So there you have it - just think of me as a modern day Marco Polo.

In a Pickle - CCC - Creative Cooking Crew made the challenge "pickle"

Green eyed green horned flying purple pickle eater - is that how the song goes? Well if it doesnt I made some purple pickles for nothing. This is an easy recipe that you can make in less than 24 hours.

Boil some beets until soft.

Boil some eggs until they are at your desired state of semi-hard boiled.

Put eggs in a glass or a jar or a bowl and add sliced garlic, rosemary, hot green chile and then cover halfway with the hot boiling liquid from the beets and then cover completely with white vinegar, add a slice or two of fresh beet to kick up the color and set aside 6 hours or over night.

You dont want to leave the eggs in the pickling agent for too long or they will become like bouncing rubber balls, so this is something that you can add eggs too often and eat often.

There are probably a few bars around New York City that still have a big jar of these pickled eggs behind the bar for the hungry beer drinker that wants a little pickled nutrition while he pickles himself but I dont thing there are any that offer purple pickled eggs. I made these once (not pickled but colored with beet juice) and turned them into deviled eggs for a breast cancer awareness event. Check out the others and lets see what got pickled.

Squash

Grilled Squash and fired Garlic light up this soup. Add some heavy cream and its golden.

Remember the ribs? Well after they were done and while the grill was cooling down I threw on some squash.

Burnt it basically and then blended it into a soup with the garlic adding some barbequed chicken and some mexican sour cream for looks, add toast and you 're done.

Out-takes just for fun....

Soup Sunday

Cracked out the crock pot and stewed like 5 pounds of turkey wings. The most glorious broth and the most tender turkey ensued, so what do you do - make soup. Did I ever mention how much I love soup. I think my most favorite soup is miso with each and every perfectly cut piece floating around so existentially, but not today. Today it is roasted garlic, potato and cheese with thyme, a hardy soup that is strong on flavor but not heavy. You can eat this with a turkey panini or good crusty bread, I used a very nice camembert and it added enough cheesy creaminess without becoming milky.