Asparagus, Pepper and Steak Stir-Fry

Again, to Tim's dismay, the spring asparagus just keeps rolling in from the CSA... I thought I'd shake things up by cooking the asparagus in a stir-fry- turned out pretty well!

I based the stir-fry on this recipe from Simply Recipes, but rather than use flank steak, I used some shaved steak that Tim picked up at Trader Joes to make cheese steaks. I sprinkled sesame seeds on at the end for some crunch.

Asparagus Pizza

Mmmm... asparagus season continues, much to Tim's dismay and my delight.

Slice the asparagus thinly on the bias, mix up some chopped tomato with minced garlic, shallots, red pepper flakes, olive oil and salt & pepper. Throw it on whole wheat pizza dough with some mozzarella. Bake it super hot on a baking stone.
Good stuff.

Easy Salmon Dinner

Sunday Dinner: Roasted Miso Salmon with Lemon, really easy recipe!

The only thing that I did different from the recipe is the amount of cooking time. The recipe says to cook the salmon and potatoes at the same time, for the same amount of time :( Totally can't cook potatoes completely without overcooking the salmon. Instead, I put the potatoes in about 15-20 minutes before the fish, then left both in for another 10-15 minutes.

Also did asparagus with garlic, s & p, red pepper flakes, and lemon...easy and yummy!

Fettuccine with Peas, Asparagus, and Bacon

This pasta dish with peas, asparagus and bacon was the May Bon Appetit front cover... it looked great and tasted pretty good. Quite fast to make, light and springy. Mmm.

Deja Vu: Risotto with Shrimp, Asparagus, Feta and Dill

So... remember last year when I raved about this risotto dish with asparagus, shrimp, feta and dill? Yeah, well, I'm raving again. It's still good. I still suggest you run to your local farmers market, pick up some asparagus, and make this dish.

Chicken Cashew Lettuce Wraps and Sesame Stir-Fried Asparagus

We have a plethora of butter lettuce from the CSA right now- I was a little overzealous when putting in my order the past couple weeks. We're sorta between seasons right now, so the variety of veggies available from the CSA is minimal, but I know it'll boom soon and give us a ton of spring vegetables... in the meantime, we're trying to find lots of uses for the greenhouse grown butter/Boston lettuce we're getting.

Lettuce wraps it is! I've made lettuce wraps once before, back in the early days of the blog, and we liked them. This time I tried a stir-fried chicken and cashew filling- tasty!

Served with simple sesame stir fried asparagus and white rice.

Asparagus Pistachio Pesto

Got some of spring's first asparagus and thought this pesto might a good idea. Omitted the spinach and threw in some basil and parsley instead. Pretty good stuff!

Served over rotini with some mushrooms sauteed in garlic and the asparagus tips.

Phyllo and Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus

Lindsay and Tim had a gang of us over for a potluck Easter dinner in their backyard since the weather was so amazing here in DC this weekend... great food, great company, totally inappropriate but hilarious conversation!!

My contribution to the dinner was an asparagus appetizer that was super tasty, although somewhat of a pain to make. It sounds simple enough: prosciutto and phyllo dough wrapped around an asparagus spear, brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with parmesan. Easier said than done, though. The thinly sliced prosciutto is sticky and breaks into pieces, and phyllo is even more finicky and easily torn. But the ultimate product was worth it- salty, crispy, asparagus-y. The motto for making these little buggers should be "less is more"- you need only half a piece of prosciutto and like a quarter of a sheet of phyllo for each one.

Deep Fried Asparagus

Martha and I went to a restaurant the other day and ordered these...we had some in the house so I made some a few days later. I followed this Bobby Flay Recipe and they came out OK...but I made a mistake putting them in the oven to keep them warm...they got mushy. We served them with some asiago dip. I would definitely try them again.



...and deep frying asparagus doesn't make that strange asparagus pee smell go away.

Asparagus with Fresh Horseradish Butter

I got fresh horseradish (that hairy root above) in my CSA share this week, and wasn't totally sure what to do with it. I also had the last asparagus of the season. A quick search on epicurious.com brought this recipe for asparagus with horseradish butter. The recipe calls for drained prepared horseradish, but I just substituted my fresh horseradish , peeled and grated with the microplane. Pretty good!
Served if with BBQ chicken thighs (followed this recipe except for the addition of some hot sauce) and Trader Joe's brown rice medley cooked in chicken broth and mixed with steamed kale and some feta cheese.

Perhaps I'll prepare the rest of the horseradish the way Simply Recipes recommends.

Mushroom and Asparagus Hash

Yes, yes. Another asparagus recipe.Earlier this year, the Washington Post did a whole article on hash and included recipes for this vegetarian mushroom asparagus hash, a sweet potato andouille hash and a traditional corned beef hash. I think Mom has tried the sweet potato hash recipe... Mom?

This one was fine, but a lot of effort. I like last night's risotto much better as far as asparagus goes. But the bright side is: now I have some peppered Boursin in the fridge.

Greek Shrimp and Asparagus Risotto

A coworker sent me a link to this recipe from Cooking Light... she picked a winner!

I know I've made a plethora of asparagus recipes recently, at least one a week for the last month, but I think about it like this: I eat asparagus once a week for approximately one month out of the year when it's in season, but then I don't get to eat it again for a year! So I am enjoying it and trying to keep it interesting by trying new recipes each time. Randy from Star Hollow Farm has already warned me that this coming Saturday is the last time I'm getting asparagus in my CSA box this year.

I had the dill left over from Amy and Tim's Peace Corps reunion "horovatz" (BBQ).

So, back to the recipe: I halved the recipe since Chuck and Tim were eating elsewhere (and because I only had half of the 1 pound bag of shrimp in the freezer), but the halving wasn't exact. I messed with the ratios a little bit.

I did half the rice, stock, water, onion, garlic and shrimp, but added approximately the full amount of asparagus, dill, lemon juice and cheese. Good idea. The extra asparagus was a bonus as far as texture and color goes, the extra flavor from the dill and lemon was key and the additional cheese added to the creaminess, as it basically melted when I stirred it in the rice.

As Jennifer is known to say: "It was really yummy!"

Asparagus, Crimini and Gruyere Tart

This dish was a hybrid of a couple recipes I found online, plus a few modifications of my own based on what I had in the fridge, what needed to be used, and general spaciness/laziness after a busy weekend.The Martha Stewart Recipe looked good, but almost too simple. This other recipe included mushrooms, which I wanted to use up, but I liked the idea of Gruyere more than creme fraiche (and didn't want to pre-cook the veggies).

So, I ultimately used packaged puff pastry, rolled it out on a baking sheet, put a super (super!) thin layer of Dijon mustard on it, sprinkled it with shredded gruyere, a thinly sliced green onion, a little bit of minced fresh thyme, parsley and rosemary, S&P, and then laid out raw asparagus and mushrooms in an artful way. Brushed the top with olive oil and more S&P and stuck it in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes. The only thing I would do differently next time is grease the baking sheet a wee bit.

Tasty and definitely cool looking!!

Asparagus, Goat Cheese and Lemon Pasta

Made this recipe tonight because I had all of the ingredients on hand and had seen it in a couple places: Bon Appetit and Smitten Kitchen. The recipe was super easy (asparagus and pasta cook in the same water, sauce is no-cook), and super tasty. The lemon really cuts through the richness of the goat cheese.

The only changes I made were to use orecchiette (the little ears) instead of spiral pasta and didn't use a full pound of it. Also, I added about 1 lemon's worth of juice. Didn't end up needing the pasta water.

Asparagus and Crimini Bread Pudding

At the recommendation of the Washington Post Food Section bloggers at "All We Can Eat," I tried this bread pudding recipe to use up the crimini mushrooms and asparagus from my CSA. The recipe is based on a recipe that Barbara Kingsolver included in her locavore's diary, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle." Pretty good!

First Asparagus of the Season

First asparagus of the season combined with the last of the parsnips (hoorah!). Served with the white wine chicken and mushrooms recipe that I've made before, using the thyme and mushrooms from the CSA and the tarragon off the roof.