Steamed veggies made even easier!

I was invited to a parish party tonight. Hating to show up empty-handed, I thought of what I had around the house so that I could contribute something yummy. I remembered the exquisite asparagus I had bought from The Old Farm Truck Market in Lively, VA and thought, aha! The rub in this plan was that I ran short on time between work and the party, plus I wanted to bring something cooling as it is, well, warmish (to put it mildly) here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Thanks be to Alton Brown, I have now learned how to steam asparagus and other veggies in the microwave! Genius, genius, genius. All the good of the veggies, plus the kitchen doesn't get overheated. It's a win, win.

As you can see from the picture, I chose to add something to my steamed asparagus, namely raspberry vinaigrette (while still warm) and crumbled goat cheese (after they had cooled a bit), which seems to figure into most everything for me right now. Needless to say, it was a huge hit, and I only got one piece of the dish. Oh well. I just need to get more and make it again!

Without further ado, here are your quick and easy instructions for steaming asparagus in the microwave. I've heard this works well for corn on the cob, too, and I can't wait to try that. I imagine it will take longer, but once I get the time, I will post it in the comments. Yum!!

Steamed Asparagus in the Microwave (per Alton Brown)

- 1 bunch asparagus, washed and trimmed

- 2 large paper towels, or 4 of the "select a size" ones, dampened with approximately a 1/4 cup of water or misted to be damp

- kosher salt

Spread the damp paper towels onto a flat surface. Lay your asparagus on top in a bunch and sprinkle with the kosher salt (not too much, but enough to mildly season it and bring out the green). Wrap the asparagus in the paper towels and place in your microwave, seam side down. Microwave on high for about two (2) minutes or until tender crisp. Season and serve as you will!

I can't wait to try this method with other veggies. Let me know which ones you do and which work best!

Salad Days

I go through phases with salads. Once upon a time, I was a vegetarian and grew tired of salad being the only non-meat option, which led to their being long-absent from my diet. Fortunately, I'm happy to eat them now! Sometimes, I will eat them for weeks on end without tiring of them; other times, I can go for months without eating them or wanting them. Sometimes, it takes a fantastically fresh and delicious salad to get me back on the kick. Now that the weather is warmer, it's an excellent time to get back on the salad kick.

At a recent brunch, I was served a fantastic salad of baby spinach, mandarin oranges, toasted almonds, and a simple vinaigrette. Yum. The other day, a friend gave me some lettuce from his garden. I washed it, spun it in my salad spinner (yes, they make a difference), tore it, and tossed it with some yummy toppings-- dried cranberries, walnuts, goat cheese, and raspberry vinaigrette. It was so good!

When I do salads, I like to combine the greens, a fruit of some sort, cheese (more often than not), a nut or something crunchy (like noodles), and a light yet flavorful dressing. Look for what's in season and what looks good. Experiment! Throw on some grilled steak, chicken, or shrimp if you want-- I recommend marinating it first, or at a minimum, seasoning it well. There are so many possibilities.

Tell me: how do you most enjoy your salads?

Roasted Asparagus

As a child, I could not stand asparagus. Fortunately for me, especially in this season, I have grown to love the stuff. It is easy to prepare and quite lovely. This bunch came from an asparagus farm near Fredericksburg, Virginia. If you can get fresh local asparagus, you will be nicely rewarded! It has a beautiful flavor that blows the all-season stuff away.

Asparagus can be done in a variety of ways-- grilled, sauteed, or roasted as I have done here. There are other ways as well, but these are quick and require a minimum of effort. You can add additional flavors according to your preferences so have fun with it! Here, I have added chopped shallots, scattered over the asparagus for the last five minutes of roasting. I also added some unsalted butter, which gave a depth of flavor. Enjoy!

You'll need:

- fresh asparagus, enough to put in a single layer on a baking tray

- salt and pepper to taste

- olive oil

- 1 tbsp unsalted butter (optional)

- 1 roughly chopped shallot (optional)

To begin, preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. Make sure there is a shelf approximately in the middle so you don't get the asparagus too close to the heat.

Wash your asparagus, dry it, and snap off the stringy ends. To do this, gently flex the stalk towards the lower end and determine where it will break. Snap the end off. You can either use this as a measure to cut the remaining ends off with a knife, or you can snap each stalk, which I enjoy (and is an excellent job for a sous chef of any age).

Line your baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy cleanup. The non-stick foil is wonderful for this. Arrange your asparagus in a single layer.

Drizzle the asparagus with a bit of olive oil (not so much as to have a puddle-- about a tablespoon or two), then add the butter, if using, in small pieces arranged evenly in the layer of asparagus. Season with salt and pepper, then place in the oven for ten (10) minutes.

If using the shallot, roughly chop it. When the asparagus has been roasting for ten minutes, add the shallot, scattered evenly around the layer of asparagus. Let it roast for five (5) more minutes.

Serve with tongs, scooping up your shallots.

Lamb Stew

St. Patrick's Day just came and went again for another year, and I repeated a successful lamb stew from last year. I found a basic recipe on Closet Cooking (well-suited for my NYC kitchen as that was microscopic) and tweaked it. The basics? Begin with good looking lamb (yes, this is a bit of a beauty contest) and select your veggies. Make sure to have good-quality beef stock on hand if you don't make your own. You'll want a good sized pot for this as well.

This recipe calls for Guinness or another stout beer, but you can use more beef stock if you do not want to use the beer. The original recipe called for adding the potatoes and carrots later in the cooking so they're not as cooked, but I like to add them earlier on. It's a preference thing so go with whatever you want. As for the lamb, I was fortunate enough to have gone to a store with a real butcher so I asked for lamb stew meat and got some of the best looking lamb I'd ever seen. The meat will flavor the whole stew so you want it to be good.

After making it once, you might see some tweaks you'd like to make. Go for it! Here's the recipe so you can get started:

Lamb Stew (modified by Anne Lane)

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon oil
1.5 pounds lamb, give or take (cut into bite sized pieces)
2 onions (roughly chopped)
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons flour
1 Guinness (or other dark stout)
* beef stock
1 tablespoon rosemary (chopped)
1 tablespoon thyme (chopped-- pull it off of the woody stem first!)
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
4 white potatoes (cut into bite sized pieces)
8 carrots (cut into bite sized pieces)
1 handful parsley (chopped) garnish-- optional

Heat the oil in a large pot. Add the lamb and brown on each side. I remove the browned pieces from the pan and place them on a plate so as to avoid crowding.

Add the onions and saute until tender, about 5-7 minutes. It will take less time for this if you're using a cast iron pot. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Sprinkle in the flour and stir. Add the Guinness and enough beef stock to cover.

Add the rosemary, thyme, bay leaf, salt and pepper, plus the potatoes and carrots if you want them more done. Add more beef stock if you add the veggies now.

Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer uncovered until the lamb is fork tender, about 1-2 hours. Check it every so often for seasoning.

If you haven't already, add the potatoes and carrots and some more beef stock to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until they are tender, about 20-60 minutes depending on cut.

Serve in bowls with parsley (if using) and Irish soda bread on the side or some other good bread. Enjoy!!

Brunswick Stew

Growing up, Brunswick Stew was always a favorite. My godmother, Mary Virginia, always had a fantastic recipe. Recently, she shared it with my mom, who shared it with me. The best part? It's still as wonderful and comforting and yet, it's not a difficult recipe! I'm posting her original recipe, along with my tweaks, which someone said make it Brunswitt Stew. From the reviews I got at the church supper, I'll take it. And without further ado, Brunswick Stew!

Brunswick Stew a la Mary Virginia

- 1 package (4 halves) chicken breasts, with skin and bones-- add more water if you find a value pack with 5 halves!

- 1 can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes

- 4 medium potatoes, diced (I used red most recently, and they were lovely. Yukon Golds would be delicious as well.)

- 1 average sized onion, chopped

- 2 cans butterbeans (I used one bag of frozen butterbeans, aka baby limas, and it was perfect.)

- 2 cans whole-grain white corn (I used 2 of the cans of white shoepeg corn, which are small but have a lot of corn in them!)

- 1 stick margarine (I switched to butter, just the regular salted variety.)

- salt and pepper to taste

- small amount of sugar (which I didn't add because I didn't think it was needed, plus I like my stew more savory.)

ALW additions:

- chicken stock if you need a little extra liquid later in cooking (I used unsalted.)

- tomato paste (the kind in the tube, which you should always have on hand, unless you cannot eat tomatoes!)

Salt and pepper each chicken breast, then cover with water in a large pot. You only want water to cover, but add more liquid later if you feel you need it or want a more brothy soup.

Add some more salt and pepper to the water as the chicken cooks as this is making your chicken stock. You want it flavorful!

When cooked, remove the chicken breasts and set aside to cool. Skim the stock of surface fat (schmaltz!). Save the schmaltz if you'll make authentic matzo ball later; otherwise, let it cool and trash it.

Add the tomatoes, potatoes, butterbeans, and onions to the stock. Let simmer.

While this is cooking, take the cooled chicken and peel off the skin. You can either chop the chicken or simply pull it off of the bone into small pieces. You can guess which one I did.

Add the chicken back to the pot and bring to a boil. Let cook until the potatoes are tender.

Add the corn, being careful to stir the pot frequently as the corn will stick to the pan otherwise.

Check for seasonings (here's where you would add the chicken stock and/or tomato paste, should you feel you need it.) and then ladle into bowls to serve. It's delicious with ham biscuits or cornbread on the side.

This reheats very well, often tasting even better the next day, and also freezes beautifully.

Egyptian Red Lentil Soup

I have always loved lentils. Among my early memories, I remember my mother serving us lentil soup, which I devoured. In the years that have followed, I have learned that there are different types of lentils, with different qualities. While living in New York City, I came upon red lentils and decided I needed to cook with them. They were too pretty to leave in the store!

With some help from the Google, I came upon a recipe on the blog Dove's Eye View, which came from Claudia Roden, an Egyptian Jewish food writer now residing in Britain. I have tweaked it slightly, something to which this recipe lends itself very easily. Play with it. I have in the past used chicken stock at some times and veggie at others, with bouillion cubes at others. If you're not concerned with making this vegan, the addition of some rinds of parmigiano reggiano is quite tasty. Make it your own!

And without further ado, here is my basic recipe:

- 1 large onion, chopped as finely as you can get it (I generally can't get it too fine, thanks to the tears!)

- 1 3/4 cups red lentils

- 7 1/2 cups meat or chicken or veggie stock or water (if you use the water, add a couple of bouillion cubes for flavor as you will need it)-- I've used the Kitchen Basics line of unsalted stocks, and their veggie stock gives this a lovely, deep color.

- salt and pepper, to taste

- 1 tsp cumin

- juice of 1 lemon

- about 2 tablespoons of olive oil (more if you'd like to drizzle some extra virgin olive oil on top)-- you can also do half olive oil, half butter

Using a minimum 2 1/2 quart pot, add the olive oil or olive oil/butter to the heated pot. Add the chopped onion and saute until it is translucent.

Add the liquid, lentils, and salt and pepper. Bring up to a simmer, then cover and let simmer on low for 30 minutes, or until the lentils have mostly fallen apart.

Check for seasoning, then add the cumin and lemon juice. Serve!

Makes 6 servings.

Sugo alla Bolognese (Bolognese Sauce)

While I'm a huge fan of meals that can be quickly and easily prepared while still tasty, there are some culinary delights that cannot be rushed. A good Bolognese is one of them. I made this for the first time on a snowy Manhattan day and have been playing with the recipe ever since. It's comforting, warming, and delicious. Have this one in your repertoire, and you'll make a lot of friends.

This recipe requires some up front work as well as some babysitting along the way. You can multiply it very easily, freezing what you don't eat right away. As with all the recipes on this blog, play with it and make it yours. I changed the original recipe to use ground beef and ground pork, adding lots of flavor.

This is adapted from a recipe by Kyle Phillips, which I found on About.Com. Since I've moved from an area in which I had access to butchers, I recognize that the ground beef and pork will most likely have to be bought in one pound minimum packages. If you don't want to double the recipe, take half a pound of each and place them together into a freezer bag, leaving you with just the right amount of ground beef and pork for the next time you make the sugo!

And now, without further ado:

Sugo alla Bolognese

- 6 ounces (half a pound) ground beef-- not too lean!

- 6 ounces (half a pound) ground pork (if you can't find ground pork, then go for a full pound of ground beef)

- 6 ounces (half a pound) pancetta, minced-- look for the pancetta cubetti, which is already minced for you and is not too fatty; if you can't find pancetta at all, then increase the ground meat

- 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil (eyeball this as you might not need this much, depending on how fatty your pancetta is)

- half a medium onion, minced

- one carrot, minced

- one large (about 10 inch) stalk of celery, minced

- 1/2 cup dry red wine-- I use Chianti

- 3/4 cup crushed tomatoes

- 1 carton beef stock or broth (Kitchen Basics makes a really good one, which you can also get unsalted and have no loss of flavor)

- A pinch of kosher salt

- freshly ground black pepper

- A pound of pasta (penne rigate or farfalle work very well)

- Grated parmigiano

If your pancetta is not already minced, mince it and the veggies. Heat the olive oil on medium heat in a Dutch oven, then add the veggies and pancetta. Saute until the onion is translucent.

Add the ground meat and brown. Add the wine, scraping to deglaze the pan. Simmer everything until the wine has reduced.

Add the tomatoes and about a cup of the beef stock. Add the pinch of salt and some black pepper. Reduce the heat to low (as low a flame or setting as you can get and still be cooking) and cover.

I check it roughly every 30 minutes, stirring and adding more stock (or water if you use your full carton of stock) if the sugo starts looking as if it's drying out.

It needs to cook for at least 2 hours. It will have thickened significantly when it's done, and its color will have gone from bright red (from the tomatoes) to a brownish red. You can taste when it's done. Don't worry about letting it cook for more than 2 hours as it will get richer and tastier. I let my last batch cook for 4 1/2 hours.

As a main course, this will serve about 4; as a first course, it will serve about 6.

Enjoy!!

***This sauce is also perfect for making lasagna.***