I love asparagus, and they are in season now. But, I never know quite what to do with them. Turns out, you can do just about anything with them, which includes putting them in a salad. The recipe below is super easy, and not all that original. However, it is post worthy because it taught me a new technique - to boil my vinegar before adding it to salad dressing. The result, according to the original recipe, is that the dressing is less bitter. The result is also that you need less oil AND it doesn't separate as easily. Magic.
Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 2 pounds asparagus, tough ends trimmed, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 1/3 cup chopped almonds, toasted (recipe originally called for pecans, but I don't like pecans so much).
- Feta cheese to taste
Preparation
1. Boil vinegar in heavy small saucepan over medium heat until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Pour vinegar into large bowl.
2. Whisk in oil, mustard, and garlic. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Cook asparagus in large pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, (original recipe said 4 minutes. I think 2 is more like it).
4. Drain asparagus and rinse with cold water. Pat asparagus dry.
5. Toss asparagus, carrots, and pepper with dressing.
6. Sprinkle with nuts and cheese and enjoy.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Asparagus Salad
Thursday, June 18, 2009
A Hold Over Post
I realize that I have made grandiose promises of regular posts and then proceeded to post precisely nothing. I really do plan to share some exciting things with you very soon. But in the mean time, check out this post from a fellow blogger who (I hope) is back from a hiatus.
Type rest of the post here
Saturday, May 30, 2009
because it's somethin' somethin' weather
And this is my favorite somethin' somethin'
Bourbon Slush
4 tea bags
2 cups boiling water
6 ounces frozen lemonade concentrate
12 ounces frozen orange concentrate
1 cup bourbon*
7 cups water
2 cups sugar
ginger ale
Put tea bags into 2 cups boiling water; steep for five minutes and remove tea bags.
Mix together remaining ingredients and add tea.
Pour into several containers and freeze at least 24 hours.
Scoop frozen mixture into a highball glass; pour ginger ale over top.
* I have been known to double the amount of bourbon.
[gratuitous somethin' somethin' picture]Friday, April 24, 2009
this is not that
You know those veggie burgers that you have to slather in cheese, or ketchup, or in other random toppings? Well, this is not that.
This, on the other hand, is a burger that is so amazing that: I am worried that I only made 32 (because that's only 16 days of lunches and dinners and then I'll have to make them again); I ate one at midnight yesterday when I finally finished making them; I had to explain at a dinner party why I had pre-gamed with a veggie burger and was thus not hungry; I am seriously considering eating my third of the day today even though I'm still not hungry.
This is the ultimate veggie burger. You can find the recipe here. My mods were simple: 1/ Doubled the recipe; 2/ Made them 1/3-cup-sized rather than 1/2-cup-sized; 3/ Cooked on my Le Creuset Grill Pan without oil. (Honestly, when I make them again, I will probably stick with the 1/2-cup-size and hope that means that I won't want to eat one after another after another after another.)
I have my mother to thank for finding this recipe. And, honestly, I thought she was making a big deal out of an excessively time-consuming recipe until I ate one over Easter weekend. I can admit when I'm wrong. So as soon as I came out of my flu/sinus infection haze enough to be hungry, I had to make these. My plan was to break them down over three days: 1/ Shop and chop; 2/ boil and saute; 3/ shape and grill. But I ended up compressing into two days because I got too excited to eat them. So, yesterday, I started boiling lentils and cooking bulgur and saute-ing leeks and, five hours later, I had 32 of the best veggie burgers ever. I can't remember the last time I spent five hours cooking and thought that it was as worth it as this.
(If I haven't made it completely clear how I feel about these burgers, you can ask CH, who was on the phone with me for a large chunk of the cooking time, about how distracted I got once I started eating one.)
Sunday, April 5, 2009
how many cupcakes can one girl fit in her back seat?
Close-up:
I made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, with vanilla frosting. The vanilla cupcakes are my favorites, from Billy's Bakery via Martha Stewart. (The vanilla frosting was also the vanilla buttercream from the same source.) During law school, I discovered this recipe when a cupcake craving was met with zero New Haven bakeries stocking cupcakes and it's been a favorite ever since. The chocolate recipe was less carefully selected: after I forgot to get sour cream at the grocery store, I searched Martha's website until I found a chocolate cupcake recipe that required neither sour cream nor buttermilk. Here's what I found. I thought they were pretty decent, for using things that were regularly in my cupboard/fridge.I have to admit, however, that I think the real highlights of these cupcakes were the liners. I found them in a cute paper store in Pasedena, and EW talked me into them. (She was right: they did drastically improve my mood while I was baking.)
And finally, proof as to why if you're going to bother labelling something, you should turn the label towards the front of your freezer. 
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Delicous Yes - Healthy No.
I had a potluck to welcome the incoming members of my journal's executive board. There are many vegetarians, so I decided to go with mac & cheese. After browsing many many recipes, here's the one i settled on. The primary source is Saveur, but I made a number of modifications.
Ingredients
6 tbsp. butter
6 tbsp. flour
1⁄2 tsp. cayenne pepper
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
3 3⁄4 cups hot skim milk
2 cups grated extra sharp cheddar
2 cups grated gouda
1 lb. short macaroni, cooked - I used fusili which i actually think is better.
1 cup fresh bread crumbs.
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Boil the pasta.
2. Make the bread crumbs. I used very crunchy french bread. I put it in the Cuisinart. I sauteed them with a bit of olive oil and salt and garlic powder to taste.
2. Melt 6 tbsp. butter in a medium stainless-steel saucepan over low heat. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, for about 4 minutes (flour mixture must foam as it cooks, or sauce will taste of raw flour).
3. Stir in cayenne and season to taste with salt and pepper. Whisk in hot milk, 1/2 cup at a time, and cook, stirring, until sauce thickens. Reduce heat to low and stir in 1 cup of gouda and 1 cup cheddar. Cook, stirring, until cheese melts, about 2 minutes. Season sauce with a bit of salt - about 1/4 teaspoon, more if you like.
4. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of remaining cheese in bottom of greased 9 x 13 baking dish. Place half the pasta on top of that. pour in half of the sauce. repeat.
5. Bake for about 30 minutes. You can cook it longer, if you want, just dont let it burn (yes, this is my motto).
Monday, February 2, 2009
It's a Marshmallow World in the Winter
My friends are well aware of my fondness for (bordering on obsession) for marshmallows. And if you were in attendance for NYE 2007-2008, are also aware that when a cooking activity calls for a candy thermometer, I generally fail. So when I read this recipe, which requires heating sugar to 240 degrees, I was skeptical. Sure it has only a few ingredients and appears to be incredibly simple. BUT it involves a candy thermometer. Not only do I not own such a device, but I also seem to be incapable of using one.
Fortunately, as the pictures suggest and my ineptitude notwithstanding, I was able to produce some delicious marshmallows, even though it did cost me my meat thermometer (which I used as a stand in for a candy thermometer and subsequently dropped into a pot of boiling sugar water). While I remain a dedicated fan of the jet puffed variety, these marshmallows are basically pure joy. And, the process is basically magic. There are only a few steps, and yet each one amounts to a complete transformation.
Additionally, there were a few close calls. First, the recipe calls for 3 packages of gelatin. Apparently it comes in 1/4 packages. Having never purchased gelatin, I was not aware. Fortunately I discovered this problem before I began the process, so I avoided the catastrophe of using 3 and 1/4 ounces of gelatin and used the correct 3/4 ounces.
Anyway, here is the recipe.
Ingredients
* Nonstick vegetable oil spray
* 1 cup cold water, divided
* 3 1/4-ounce envelopes unflavored gelatin (Note that this does NOT say 3 and 1/4 ounces. It says 3/4 ounces.)
* 2 cups sugar
* 2/3 cup light corn syrup
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup potato starch
* 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
1. Line 13x9x2-inch dish (glass/metal/whatever) with parchment paper. (The recipe that I had said to use foil; don't do that. I hear it's a disaster.) I spray a little under the paper to help keep it in place as I'm pouring the marshmallows into the pan.
2. Coat parchment lightly with nonstick spray. Pour 1/2 cup cold water into bowl of heavy-duty mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Sprinkle gelatin over water. Let stand until gelatin softens and absorbs water, at least 15 minutes.
3. Combine 2 cups sugar, corn syrup, salt, and remaining 1/2 cup cold water in heavy medium saucepan. Stir over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves, brushing down sides of pan with wet pastry brush. Attach candy thermometer to side of pan. Increase heat and bring syrup to boil. Boil, without stirring, until syrup reaches 240°F, about 8 minutes.
4. With mixer running at low speed, slowly pour hot syrup into gelatin mixture in thin stream down side of bowl (avoid pouring syrup onto whisk, as it may splash). Gradually increase speed to high and beat until mixture is very thick and stiff, about 15 minutes. Add vanilla and beat to
blend, about 30 seconds longer.
5. Scrape marshmallow mixture into prepared pan. Smooth top with wet spatula. Let stand uncovered at room temperature until firm, about 4 hours.
6. Stir potato starch and powdered sugar in small bowl to blend. Sift generous dusting of starch-sugar mixture onto work surface, forming rectangle slightly larger than 13x9 inches. Turn marshmallow slab out onto starch-sugar mixture; peel off foil. Sift more starch-sugar mixture over marshmallow slab. Coat large sharp knife (or cookie cutters) with nonstick spray. Cut marshmallows into squares or other shapes. Toss each in remaining starch-sugar mixture to coat. Transfer marshmallows to rack, shaking off excess mixture.