Next month my work cookoff series continues with the spectacular Macaroni and Cheese showdown!  (remove the "spectacular", "showdown", and exclamation point and you'll have an idea of the scale of this event).  The previous two months have brought us French Onion Soup and New England Clam Chowder.  The idea has been to stick with relatively simple dishes that people tend to have strong opinions about. 

I'm in no way an authority on Mac and Cheese, don't really have very strong opinions on it either.  I like the baked solid stuff.  I like the creamy cheesy stuff.  I even like the stuff from the box.  So, I'm feeling at a bit of a disadvantage.  Ok, not really, but I thought it might be good fodder for discussion.  What's your favorite Mac and Cheese like?  What ingredients?  What texture?  Use the comments section to share you grandma's secret recipe. 

Here's the recipe I used tonight.  This was pretty yummy, but I'm not sure it it's a winner.  The key ingredients were heavy cream, gruyere cheese, and proscuitto.  I really liked the touch of the proscuitto, I would actually add a little more next time around. 

The bruschetta was topped with sauteed green beans, yellow squash, basil, and reduced orange juice.

I was reading a couple interesting articles this morning Thai cuisine.  This one by Matthew Amster-Burton describes a few authentic Thai dishes that have for the most part not made it to the States, but really should have.  I don't have too much of a problem with Americanized ethnic dishes, our palettes are developed differently, and even the most adventurous of us can still get the willies when presented with some animal parts with which we have very little experience.  Lets face it, a restaurant's probably going to have trouble here if their menu has a lot of eyes and feet.  But the limitation of techniques is really a bit of a bummer.  It would be great to see more things like the fried fish flakes in Mamster's article over here.

Anyway, reading about this food stirred up some serious Thai flavor pairings, but I didn't have much besides pantry items sitting around the house.  So I couldn't whip up any Isaan Sour Sausage or Fluffy Catfish.  I did, however, manage to scrounge up enough items to make this soup.

2 Stalks Lemon Grass - cut into large pieces to be removed
3 teaspoons Thai Red Chili Paste
2 tablespoons dried tamarind - soaked in 1/4 cup warm water
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
1/4 lb asparagus - cut in 1 inch pieces
2 shallots sliced
2 cloves garlic minced
4 cups chicken stock
a handful or two of thawed pealed shrimp

Heat a tablespoon of veg. oil in a Dutch oven and add the asparagus.  Saute for a couple minutes and then add the garlic and shallots for another minute.  Add the chili paste, lemon grass, and 2 tablespoons of the tamarind water.  Sauté one more minute then add the stock and fish sauce.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 15 minutes.  Add the shrimp when there is about 5 minutes left.  Add the cilantro right at the end.