What I have truly come to appreciate about having a food blog is challenging myself to learn cooking techniques that have forever altered my previous food path of buying boxed mixes and frozen prepared foods. Amen. With that said, I have developed some food shopping compulsions habits that can make my grocery bill sky-rocket faster than the price of gasoline. Seriously. I have an array of exotic condiments and baking doo-dads that I bought, with a specific mission in mind. Then, my recipe attention deficit disorder kicks in, and I make something entirely different. (I'moutofbreathfromthatreallylongandrunonsentence!)
Therefore, my garage freezer and pantry runneth over. This is when I step into my home "Iron Chef Mode". Instead of relying on an ingredients list for a new recipe, I'm doing the reverse. Based on what I have on hand, determines what's next on the menu at home. I need to shop at home, first, because I don't want to become a food hoarder! I spotted this recipe on "Quinces and the Pea", and I loved the color of the risotto. Making a mental grocery list, I realized I had everything to make this. I had a few asparagus spears in my fridge.
I had a box of unopened Carnaroli rice, and a few opened bottles of white wine in the fridge. Somewhere in the freezer, I recalled seeing a few large shrimp (is that an oxymoron?). My cheese drawer is chock full of Fontina, Gouda, Parmesan, Romano, Feta (I have a serious affinity for cheeses). The last time I actually made a Risotto was Ina Garten's Spring Risotto (August 2009), so it was time to make this delicious Italian comfort food.
Risotto isn't a difficult dish to make. Sure, you have to add small amounts of chicken stock, and you need to do a bit of stirring. On the other hand, it doesn't mean you can't do a little prep work in the kitchen at the same time. I've added some saffron to the broth and white wine, for some color.
I made a few changes from the "Quince's" recipe and I decided to quickly saute' the asparagus (rather than steam them) with a little olive oil and unsalted butter. I also sauteed shallots (instead of green onion) with some fresh garlic, before adding the rice.
As the liquid reduces, I add an additional ladle of chicken broth, and make sure to stir often.
Risotto should be cooked until it's al dente (firm when bitten). The end result that I prefer is a creamy risotto, but I honestly don't want it to be too "soupy". The asparagus is al dente as well, so it's time to cook the shrimp-- I've done a quick marinade of the shrimp with a splash of white wine, finely minced garlic, a squeeze of lemon juice and some olive oil.
These shrimp (tails removed) are quickly cooked for about 2 minutes per side...
We want them pink and no longer opaque. Remove from heat.
The rice is perfectly cooked, I season it with a little more coarse salt. The pan is removed from the heat, and I add a fistful of freshly grated Parmesan, about 2 Tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, the asparagus and a handful of frozen peas (unthawed). I gave the risotto a final stir.
Now, add the cooked shrimp...
Carnaroli rice makes such a creamy risotto! But this needs more freshly grated cheese, and a little lemon zest...
All that's needed is a glass of chilled white wine and for a hungry husband to join me at the dinner table.
TASTING NOTES: You can cook the risotto a minute or two less, if you prefer more of a runny sauce. It's all preference. I loved the creamy, thickness of the rice, which was perfectly cooked. The color of the saffron was really nice, but you could use a pinch of tumeric if you don't have saffron on hand. The shrimp rounded out this light comfort food meal, and a crisp white wine balanced the citrus and the saltiness of the Parmesan.
If you've always thought making risotto is too hard, or too much work, I can assure you that it took about 25 minutes for this dinner to be on the table. It took about 15 seconds for my husband to be at the table, and an immeasurable amount of time to enjoy each others company for a cozy dinner at home-- and definitely a lot more economical than at a restaurant.
Today, being St. Patrick's Day, I've seen so many beautiful "green" dishes. It's is purely, by coincidence, that I have this vibrantly green, beautiful (and very tasty) Creamy Asparagus Soup to share with all of you. This recipe is in the April 2010 issue of Cook's Country-- one of my favorite recipe magazines. I took these photos on Monday night, shortly before all my natural lighting was gone. For that reason, you can't really appreciate what a verdant green this soup turned out to be. There are two secret ingredients, that the test kitchen of Cook's Country (same owners as Cook's Illustrated) added that delivered surprisingly great results. What are they? First, let's start with the basics-- fresh asparagus. This bunch is from Mexico, but today I see that locally grown California asparagus has hit the markets at $1.97 a pound. I'm so happy, because we love asparagus.
TIP: I save these blue bands. They are perfect for tying bouquet garni (herbs for seasoning soup stock and stews). Kitchen twine is great, but these hold up really well in hot liquids.
Prepare the leeks, but washing and cutting them and washing them well. If you are unfamiliar with how to prep leeks, click here. Cut tips off asparagus spears and chop stalks into 1/2-inch pieces. Melt 1 1/2 tablespoons butter (I used a combo of olive oil and unsalted butter) in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add asparagus tips and cook, stirring occasionally, until just tender, about 2 minutes. Set aside.
Right here, I could have eaten all of these. OK. I ate one. It was delicious.
Add remaining butter and asparagus, leeks, 1/2 tablespoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper to empty pot and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened, about 10 minutes.The secret ingredients are about to be revealed...
Add broth to pot and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in peas and Parmesan. Peas and Parmesan? Yes, that's right. Cook's Country found that the peas gave a vibrant green color to the soup, but taste testers couldn't detect the peas. The Parmesan's slightly nutty flavor was a good balance to the asparagus, the article said. Now, to make the soup creamy....
Puree soup in blender in 2 batches and return to pot. However, kudos to you if you have an immersion blender. I've written this dozens of times-- I find it so much easier to puree my soups right in the pot! Why bother pouring soups, in batches, into a blender and then back into the pot? Whatever floats your boat. Last, stir in cream, lemon juice, and asparagus tips, and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.
This is the truth-- I made this soup in less than 30 minutes! Of course, how did it taste, you wonder?
Winner, winner, winner! Craig and I both loved this soup a lot. The first thing we commented about was the pretty color. We do taste with our eyes, don't we? The balance of asparagus flavor was perfect. Craig didn't taste the peas nor the Parmesan cheese. These surprising ingredients complemented the overall flavor of the soup. I think you could easily substitute the heavy cream for half and half, or even milk. To us, 1/4 cup of heavy cream for six servings isn't too big an indulgence.
This soup is worthy of company. It's elegant, flavorful and not too heavy. It's a perfect Spring Time Soup.
I'm linking this recipe to Souper Sunday's at Kahakai Kitchen. Deb does a weekly roundup of soups, salads and stews every single Sunday. Come check her out! Deb also posts a wonderful selection of very healthy recipes. As always the recipe card is at the bottom of the post.
While organizing an Alphabetical and Categorical Index for my recipes, I realized something... I don't post/cook enough seafood recipes! I admit, that I don't crave fish, let alone adore fish-- the exception being fresh salmon, sole or tilapia-- all of which I love. Shellfish isn't my husband's favorite meal, unfortunately. But, I can't get enough of lobster, shrimp or scallops! Fortunately, my son loves any kind of seafood, so I invited him for dinner. I've been a bit MIA with the Barefoot Bloggers Group for a few weeks. Ooops! I've missed making the last few recipes. The last one, Coconut Cupcakes-- I just couldn't muster the desire to make them. I'd already made Ina's Coconut Cake and this is the same recipe. But, when my Blogger friend, Cathy (A Spoonful of Thyme), reminded me that the Barefoot Bloggers current selection was Baked Scampi... I wanted to do it! This recipe comes from "Back to Basics", which has become one of my favorite of Ina's many cookbooks.
The prep work was ridiculously easy:
Unsalted butter is important! I say this, because when I read reviews, some folks complained that this dish was too salty. Hmmmm. I wonder if they used regular butter and/or table salt? So, unsalted butter, it is. Scampi isn't scampi without fresh garlic, and that's the truth. You also need one egg yolk-- this is to bind the topping we're about to make. But, first, we need to prep the shrimp:
I like to keep a bag of raw shrimp in my deep freeze. I do a quick thaw, with room temp water. In a matter of minutes, I can easy butterfly the shrimp. These were pretty much deveined, but I still remove any traces of that black squiggly stuff. I cut the recipe in half, calculating about six shrimp per person-- which turned out to be a tad over one pound.
You won't even break a sweat on the marinade-- white wine, olive oil, kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper. Gently stir it up....
Set the shrimp aside, to room temperature and now to make the topping.
You'll want to zest a lemon, then juice it. Minced shallots, fresh parsley and rosemary, and minced garlic...
In a bowl, add the softened butter, zest, lemon juice, herbs, shallots and-- definitely-- red pepper flakes. I highly recommend it! Of course, you need panko crumbs. These are my favorite and love them a lot more then traditional breadcrumbs. I love the crunch. Last, add the egg yolk and combine everything. This takes about 2 minutes!
The topping is ready.
Set each shrimp with the butterfly section "down" and the tail "up". Go in a circle, which looks nice. Individual gratin or ramekin dishes would also be a fun way to prepare this dish.
It doesn't have to be perfect. You're going to cover these with that buttery-flavorful topping--
Easy!
I popped this into the fridge for about 2 hours. This is perfect for entertaining. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 425F and bake these for 10-12 minutes. How about some easy side dishes?
For fluffy rice, I rinse it thoroughly I like to make "Budget Saffron Rice" by using a 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric to color the rice a pretty yellow. I like to use a combo of chicken broth and water, too.
When the rice is cooked, I add fresh herbs and lemon juice. Sometimes I add peas. My son loves my Split Pea Soup but he hates fresh peas. He's weird. But, he was a dinner guest and I left it out.
You like?
Roasting asparagus is our favorite way to prepare these. Welcome to the first fresh asparagus of the California Season, at $1.27 a pound! I use kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper, some olive oil-- and this time, freshly grated Parmesan. Baked at 425F for about 12 minutes, which happens to be the same temperature of roasting the shrimp-- these are so good!
The smell is amazing! Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the baked scampi, as soon as it comes out of the oven.
This is my son's dinner plate. He was licking his chops.
VERDICT: Ina Garten delivers, once again! The flavors worked so well together-- just enough garlic, the acid of the lemon and subtle heat of the red pepper-- the white wine (which I also drank a glass of) and the crunch of the panko crumbs-- even Craig liked this dinner. This recipe is a keeper, and I love the ease of making this dish. I can spend more time with dinner guests, instead of cooking in the kitchen. Loved it!
LEFTOVERS: The next day, there were a few shrimp left. I added some fresh panko, a little drizzle of olive oil and broiled the dish. These were excellent! I didn't broil the dish the first time, but I think that's a great touch.
Thank you Jane, of "Insanely Good Food" for choosing this recipe for The Barefoot Bloggers. You picked a winner-- which I overlooked in my own copy of Back to Basics.
All three recipes are at the very bottom of this post. I hope you give them a try, because this dinner wasn't too expensive and very easy to make. I still hold Ina Garten near and dear to my heart as a Celebrity Chef and Entrepreneur who makes beautiful and flavorful dishes that are very easy to prepare.
Last night, my husband and I attended a musical (Bye Bye Birdie) at our local college. We invited our friends for dinner, before going to the show. I had already scheduled a hair appointment (much needed). Suffice it to say that I had neglected my hair color and cut a tad longer than I should have, so it took three hours before I could head home. I had no time to shop during the week and I had not settled on what to make for our dinner guests.
Fortunately, I had just received Ina Garten's Cookbook that I ordered from Amazon, yesterday. I took it with me to the hair salon to read:
Last month, I checked this book out from our local library and I decided that I wanted to add this to my collection of cookbooks. I realize that I've been posting a lot of recipes from Ina Garten-- and I can assure you that I have not become an obsessed fan of hers. I just find that I can relate to most of her recipes. Like Ina, I enjoy cooking and baking, and I try to buy the best quality ingredients possible. There are times, however, when I can't quite afford her pricey selection of liqueurs, because we don't drink a lot of cocktails. But, for the most part, the majority of her recipes are right up my alley.
I zeroed in on Page 82 for Parmesan Chicken and Page 116 for Provencal Tomatoes. Fortunately, I had almost all of the ingredients on hand and we love LOTS of sweet, red ripe tomatoes in our backyard. All I needed to do was buy fresh chicken and I decided to pick up asparagus.
Our dinner guests are very easy to please, so I didn't feel pressure on what to make. I also felt confident that this dinner would not be too much for my exhausted, mental state of mind, after a very hectic two weeks at my job. It's a good thing, because I arrived home at 4:00 and our guests were due to arrive at 5:30... and I did not have a dessert, nor did I have time to stop and buy one! Yikes!
Since I was racing the clock, I didn't take my usual step-by-step photos, but these recipes are very simple to make.
First the Parmesan chicken-- the chicken breasts were boneless and skinless (to save time), so I butterflied them. I covered the chicken with plastic wrap and pounded them thin. I grabbed three pie plates-- one was filled with flour, seasoned with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. The second was filled with two eggs and a little water, then whisked. The third plate was filled with panko crumbs. Ina uses bread crumbs (and I make my own), but I really like the crunchiness of panko crumbs. To the panko crumbs, I added freshly ground Parmesan (using my food processor, since I buy my Parmesan in chunks). I seasoned the crumbs with about 1 Tablespoon of homemade Italian blend (dried thyme, oregano, basil and a little marjoram). Like an assembly line, I dipped the chicken in flour, egg and crumbs and set them in the fridge.
My husband picked the tomatoes but I had only one large one and the rest were medium sized. No worries-- I cut them in half and removed the seeds and juice.
For the tomatoes, I decided to use the rest of my panko crumbs, instead of bread crumbs. I didn't have scallions, so I improvised and used shallots. My Italian parsley isn't growing back, so I grabbed curly parsley from the garden-- which is plentiful. (You can use dried herbs, too.) I had LOTS of leftover crumb filling, by the way, so they are in my fridge for quick meals this week.
I filled the tomatoes and preheated the oven to 400F. NOTE: I didn't pay attention to how dry the crumbs looked. In retrospect, I think Ina missed an important step. I would definitely add olive oil or melted butter to the crumbs, to help them bind better. They were a little dry, in my opinion.
Last, I picked two fresh lemons from our tree and made Ina's lemon vinaigrette. Could it be any simpler? Lemon juice, kosher salt & pepper. I set a whisk and a bottle of extra virgin olive oil close by. I open up a package of fresh mixed salad greens into a bowl and chilled it.
I wanted to make garlic mashed potatoes, but the clock was ticking. Fortunately, I had purchased fresh asparagus so I used my fool-proof method of trimming them, seasoning them with kosher salt & pepper and drizzling them with olive oil. I set these on a baking sheet, lined with aluminum foil. I calculated that the asparagus would take about 10 minutes to roast, so I'd put them in five minutes after starting the tomatoes in the oven.
On a whim, I showed my husband how to trim a ripe cantaloupe into wedges and how to wrap thin slices of prosciutto (another refrigerator staple around each wedge). Whew! I had appetizers ready to go and the white wine was chilled. No photos, but they looked pretty and the combination of salty and sweet works very well. They disappeared fast.
My husband, bless his heart, helped by tidying up behind me and setting the table. I quickly changed my clothes and the doorbell rang at exactly 5:30pm.
I think that Ina's gift of entertaining helped me to pull off this dinner in a short time. I was able to chat with our guest for a few minutes, and then I was able to begin dinner. The tomatoes were put into the oven and I set up the stove to cook the chicken. I wanted to cook the chicken all at once, so I set my griddle on the stove and another large pan.
...I said a silent prayer of thanks that the rest of the side dishes would be cooked in the oven.
Using olive oil and unsalted butter, the chicken cooked about 3 minutes per side until golden...
Timing is everything, as my mother always preached to me. The asparagus were perfectly roasted in 10 minutes, and I squeeze a little fresh lemon juice on top. I added Gruyere cheese on top of the tomatoes and returned them to the oven for about 1 more minutes.
In the meantime, I drizzled olive oil into the season lemon juice and tossed it into the salad greens. Time to plate dinner-- 15 minutes after I started cooking!
I have to say, this looks pretty and impressive enough for company!
It is such joy, as many of you know, when dinner guests show delight in their eyes when I serve them a plate like this! Honestly, this was fast and easy-- and very delicious. I loved the freshness of the lemon vinaigrette and the salad greens, and the crunchiness of the chicken with the hint of Parmesan cheese. The tomatoes were outstanding, and roasted asparagus are always a big hit.
Still, I wanted to serve a dessert. Fortunately, I had purchased a box of LU Digestive Biscuits a couple of weeks ago. These can be a little tricky to find, but I found them at the grocery store where my son works. It was in the gourmet section. They're quite good, actually.
Ina, once again, inspired me with this easy version of S'mores. We made fresh coffee and I trotted off to the stove (again, thankful that it's a gas range). I simply melted marshmallows and put them in between two of these cookies..
We each ate just one of these, and they were ooey gooey wonderful and rich tasting.
How did I enjoy the musical? It was cute and the kids did a great job...but, by Act Two, my head was on my husband's shoulder and I was sound asleep!
I would venture that it's a safe guess that you'll be seeing more of Ina's recipe on my blog. This phase shall pass, but for now, Ina has rescued me by inspiring me with very simple recipes that never fail to please. OK, so I'm a huge fan of hers! Rachel who???
It's so good to be back in the kitchen, playing with new recipes!
