Delightful Asparagus

With a pound of asparagus and no desire to roast it again--even though I love roasted asparagus, I was lucky enough to see this recipe in the New York Times.

The veggies release their juices into the olive oil and make a really delicious sauce. I used my portobellos rather than shiitakes in this recipe. I would up the mushroom component in the future because I really love mushrooms. Also, I may cut back on the tarragon in the future as the littlest member of the family found the anise quality a tad off-putting.

Baked Asparagus With Mushrooms, Prosciutto and Couscous

1 pound asparagus, ends trimmed
¼ pound portobello mushrooms, stems removed, sliced ¼-inch thick
2 ounces cubed prosciutto
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus 2 teaspoons; additional for drizzling
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Ground black pepper, to taste
Grated nutmeg
3 tarragon sprigs
¾ cup whole-wheat couscous.


1. Heat oven to 200 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (it should be twice as long as pan). Lay asparagus in a pile in center. Scatter mushrooms and prosciutto on top. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons oil and season with ¼ teaspoon salt, the pepper and nutmeg. Toss vegetables to coat evenly. Lay tarragon over top.

2. Fold parchment to completely enclose vegetables, and staple top and sides shut (or tie up with string). Transfer pan to oven and bake for one hour. Asparagus should be just cooked through. If too crisp, return to oven until done to taste.

3. In a small pot over medium-high heat, bring ¾ cup plus 3 tablespoons water, 2 teaspoons olive oil and remaining salt to a simmer. Stir in couscous and remove pot from heat. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with fork.

4. Spoon couscous onto serving plates and drizzle with oil. Divide prosciutto and vegetables, and their juices, among the plates and serve.

What To Do With All That Lettuce, #4

Here's a way to essentially make a salad without needing to call it a salad--make asian lettuce wraps. And thank you Martha Stewart Everyday Food for inspiration found in this recipe.


I changed the recipe a bit by using less soy, less sugar, adding sriracha, omitting the jalapeño, and adding a good squirt of lime juice.

Thai Lettuce Wrap Ups

⅜ cup soy sauce
⅛ cup water
4 teaspoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
1 large shallot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons minced ginger (I used the stuff in the tube that you keep in your freezer)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons Sriracha-- the "rooster" garlic chili condiment
1 pound ground turkey (Martha says 93 percent lean, I used ground turkey thighs)
Juice from 2 limes
Lettuce leaves--I had red leaf and romaine--the romaine doesn't fold up

Combine soy sauce, water, fish sauce, sugar in a bowl. Stir until the sugar dissolves--this takes longer than you think it will. Set sauce aside.

Saute shallot, ginger and garlic in grapeseed oil. Add ground turkey and brown and break up. When the turkey is nearly cooked add Srirarcha and the reserved sauce. Heat through. Remove to serving bowl and juice limes over the meat. Fill lettuce leaves with ground turkey, wrap up and eat.

You could add shredded cucumber and carrot to the wrap ups as well and that would be really delicious.

What To Do With All That Lettuce, #3

Much like Karen's beloved, I love salad. Greens dressed simply with olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper truly make me happy. My husband, on the other hand, grew up on cooked veggies. But, even I have trouble getting through all the lettuce that has been arriving. It doesn't help that sometimes the lettuce arrives screaming for immediate use. Often the hydroponic lettuce looks as if the due date requires the past tense...

Faced with two heads of hydroponic lettuce that didn't look like they were going to make it dinner that evening, I went the soup route as well, but decided to give it a bit of tang with Kefir.

Kefir Lettuce Soup

2 heads hydroponic boston lettuce, cleaned and chopped
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 russet potato, peeled and cut in ¼ dice
1 quart chicken stock
Salt and Pepper to taste
½ Cup Kefir

Head the olive oil in a soup pot and add the shallot until translucent. Add the potato and saute for 5 minutes. add the lettuce and wilt--about two minutes. Add the chicken stock and cook until potatoes are done. Blend with an immersion blender or do in batches with a blender. Return to pot, add salt and pepper and kefir and simmer gently.

I also dropped of few stale pieces of baguette on top and that was amazingly tasty.

This Week

This is what arrived today:

Romaine Lettuce
Radicchio
Asparagus
Kale
Broccoli
Carrots
Potatoes
Onions
Apples

This is what I successfully used so far this past week:
Eggplant in fairly disastrous eggplant croquettes
Red cabbage in sauteed cabbage
Broccoli in cheese sauce
Stuffed portobello mushrooms
Fruit, mostly eaten as is, but some as apple and pear sauce for my 8-month-old daughter
Spinach, simply sauteed

Still left:
bok choy
some lettuce
some red cabbage

What To Do With All That Lettuce, #2

In the search for innovative things to do with lettuce, I have found one other great cooked lettuce recipe -- a real star.  It's not freezable or preservable, which would be ideal when facing an overabundance of any particular food, but it is different, interesting, very quick, and very good.  I think this may become a mainstay in the house.

This one is from The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces by Diane Seed, another one of my favorite cookbooks, and the kind of book that is particularly useful when faced with such a task as Lisa and I are facing, trying to come up with different ways to use the same foods.

Tagliolini con Gamberi e Radicchio
(Tagliolini with shrimp and radicchio)

1 lb tagliolini (as usual, I just used linguine)
5 Tbs butter
1.25 lbs cooked shrimp (I used the frozen ones that I always keep in the freezer because they're so handy to have available, but big ol' prawns would be lovely here)
10 oz radicchio
10 oz lettuce
1 small glass brandy
2/3 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper

Heat the butter and add the shrimp and the radicchio and lettuce leaves cut into fine strips.  Cook gently for 5 minutes.  Add the brandy and when it has evaporatedadd the cream, salt and pepper.  Cook the pasta.  Drain and stir into the pan containing the shrimp.  Stir well and serve at once.

What To Do With All That Lettuce?

My husband loves salads and always complains that we don't eat enough of them.  I have long been a cooked vegetables girl, and I'm only interested in a salad if it's totally interesting and unique (bonus points if it has a hefty dose of protein).  He on the other hand considers a plain plate of lettuce an acceptable -- and enjoyable -- side salad.

But even he isn't sure about what to do with all the lettuce we've been getting.

I've been working to improve my salad-making and -eating enjoyment, and will continue to share my salad adventures with you.  But what I really need are cooked lettuce recipes!  Better yet, cooked and freezable lettuce recipes.  I have found only one freezable recipe so far -- something I've dubbed "Salad Soup" which is a surprisingly yummy, spring time soup.  Don't knock it until you've tried it. . . It's from one of my favorite soup cookbooks: Dairy Hollow House Soup and Bread: A Country Inn Cookbook by Crescent Dragonwagon. 

Cream of Leek, Herb, and Garden Lettuce Soup

6 c chicken stock
1/4 c white rice
Cooking spray
2 Tbs butter
3 leeks, white part and 3 inches green, split open lengthwise, well washed, and chopped
1 rib celery with leaves
1 medium carrot, peeled, halved lanthwise and thinly sliced
2-3 c assorted lettuces sliced into ribbons
1/2 c Italian parsley, chopped
1/4 c fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/2 c fresh herbs such as sorrel, tarragon, thyme, oregano, rosemary, and sage (anything but dill) chopped
1 c heavy cream or evaporated skim milk
1 Tb flour
1 tsp honey or sugar
freshly grated nutmeg
salt and pepper

In a heavy soup pot, bring hte stock to a boil.  Add the rice, turn down the heat to medium-low, and let simmer, covered, until quite soft, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, spray a 10-inch skillet with cooking spray.  Add the butter and melt over medium heat.  Add the leeks and saute until softened, about 3.5 minutes.  Add the celery and carrot and saute 3 minutes more.  Add the lettuce and herbs, cover teh skillet, and let sweat until wilted, 1 to 2 minutes.  Lift the cover and remove from the heat.

Strain the stock, reserving both the rice and the stock.  Transfer the rice to a food processor and return the stock to the pot.  Add half the veggies and herbs, the cream, flour, and honey to the processor.  Puree until smooth.  Stir the puree and the whole vegetables back into the stock.  Simmer, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened and free of any raw flour tasts, about 10 mintues.  Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.  Serve hot.

Butternut -squash ravioli

We received butternut squash a few weeks ago, and I tried out a great recipe from Giada's Kitchen: New Italian Favorites by Giada De Laurentiis which was a butternut squash sauce with shrimp and basil, which I served over linguini.  I thought it was fantastic, but my husband said it was a little too sweet for his tastes.  So I decided to try the sauce again as a ravioli filling.  Now this isn't nearly so intensively Martha Steward obsessive as it sounds -- I certainly didn't make my own pasta.  I just used wonton wrappers. . .  which now that I think of it, may have been where I went wrong.  I have always sworn off making bread products of any kind, and the few times I have tried to make pasta by hand have been a disaster.  But the wonton wrappers, pretty much ended up tasting like wonton wrappers, and half of the fillings leaked out when boiled. 

So, I'm going to keep working on that recipe, and I'll let you know how it goes.  In the meantime -- here's the original from Giada:

Rigatoni with Squash and Prawns 

Serves 4 to 6

6 Tbs Olive Oil 

1 lb butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-in cubes

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp pepper

1 cup vegetable broth (I used chicken)

1 pound rigatoni pasta (I used linguine)

1 lb prawns or large shrimp

3/4 c whole milk

1/2 c chopped fresh basil

1/4 c grated Parmesan

Warm 3 Tbs of the oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the butternut squash, garlic, 1 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp of pepper.  Saute the squahs until golden and tender, 5- 7 minutes.  Add the broth, bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until the squash is very soft, another 5-7 minutes.   Transfer to a blender or food processor and puree. 

Cook the pasta and drain. 

Meanwhile, warm the remaining 3 Tbs of olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium high heat.  Sprinkle the shrimp with the remaining salt and pepper and add them to the pan to cook, turning once until just cooked -- about 3 minutes. 

In a large pot over low heat combine the cooked pasta, the squash and 3/4 cup milk.  Stir to combine.  Add the remaining milk if needed.  Add the shrimp, the basil and the cheese.  Stir until warm, and serve!