Asparagus Soup, Pork Roast, and Balsamic Roasted Potatoes:

My parents returned recently from a 40th Anniversary trip to England and Scotland and brought a new Jamie Oliver cookbook (Jamie at Home: Cook your way to the Good Life), which is as yet unavailable in the U.S., for me for my birthday. I like the simple way he cooks and the way he uses classic ingredients and classic techniques to come up with interesting twists. This weekend I thought I would try out a couple of recipes from the book, and we had them for dinner last night.

First was an asparagus soup. This was super easy. Just chop up a rib of celery, some leek, and some onion, and sweat these in olive oil. When translucent, add a pound of chopped up asparagus (saving the tips for later). Into this goes about half a liter of chicken stock and it simmers for 20 minutes or so. The next step is to use an immersion blender to break up the now soft pieces of asparagus and other vegetables. The soup takes on a lovely, vibrant, green color. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add the asparagus tips 5 minutes or so before serving so that they can soften up. Following Jamie's recipe, I served this with a soft-boiled egg (as Mina and I are fans of the runny yolk) and a piece of toast.

Next up was roast pork. I used a 1 lb. roast and rolled it in chopped rosemary, ground fennel seeds, salt and pepper, before searing this into a crust. After searing on all sides, it went into a 375 degree oven until the internal temp hit 155 degrees, then rested 5 minutes (carry over cooking got the temp to 160). Slice and serve.

Finally, the potatoes. I cut a couple of white potatoes into wedges and did the same with a red onion. I also smashed up some garlic. These went into the roasting pan, were seasoned, and hit with a good amount of olive oil. I poured balsamic vinegar over the top and this went into the 375 degree oven for 30 minutes.

In the end, I served this with a 2004 Cabernet from Columbia Crest Grand Estates in Washington, which I found to be well worth the $9 I paid for it. Pinot would have been nice as well. Mina had her usual ice cold beer.

Ken Burns' "The War"

I am supposed to be studying; I have class to teach tomorrow, readings for seminar on Friday and then a short turnaround to seminar on Tuesday next week. However, I finished watching "The War", Ken Burns' documentary on WWII on PBS this evening and wanted to get some thoughts down about it.

First, I have to ask, what was the deal with the Norah Jones song? I am a fan of hers', but can't quite figure out what the point of her tune was. It was completely off the documentary track, far too jingoistic, and seemed to me to be a sappy attempt at pulling at the heartstrings of a viewership who is likely liberal and against the war in Iraq. Uncalled for, I thought.

As to the documentary itself, I was reasonable impressed with the approach Burns took. Understanding off the bat that he is, first and foremost, a filmmaker of the American experience, it didn't really surprise me that he approached WWII from a purely American point of view. It did surprise me that it took him until the last episode to deal in any way with the holocaust, and that he swept under the rug any implications of America's having ignored reports coming out of Europe for 5+ years that these attrocities were going on. "The Soviets must have been exagerating..." is all the explanation we got from Burns and his writers.

Actually, it seems the Soviets were at the root of most everything bad that we Americans did during the war. The firebombings of Dresden seem to have purely been a response to a Soviet demand that we bomb railroad depots that were sending reinforcements to the Eastern Front. Any ethical consideration of the tens of thousands of civilian lives that might have died thus the Soviets' fault. Bollocks, I say.

All that said, "The War" makes a powerful complement to the classics "World at War" and "Victory at Sea". It's not a stand alone documentary of WWII, but Burns never stated that is should be considered to be such.