Stir-fried Asparagus

My favorite way to eat asparagus is for breakfast - steamed with a fried egg on top. (See a picture here.)

Roasted or grilled is also excellent. (See a recipe here.)

But for an easy side dish, stir-frying is the way to go.

Choose slender asparagus for this dish. It will be tender-crisp and yummy.

Stir-fried Asparagus

1 1/2 cups asparagus, cut in 1 inch pieces

1-2 tsp olive oil

1/2 tsp grated ginger root

1 clove garlic

sprinkle of hot chili flakes

Warm olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add asparagus, ginger root, garlic and a sprinkle of hot chili flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally, 3-4 minutes until the asparagus is tender but still a little crisp.

Serve immediately.

Serves 2-3 

Cabbage and Watercress Slaw

Leftover beans and rice are a common dinner around here - I just warm them in the oven and dinner is on.

Of course, a crunchy side dish is essential to balance the soft textures of the beans and rice. The other day this cabbage and watercress slaw fit the bill.

It's adapted from a recipe I learned years ago in a macrobiotic cooking class in Montreal. The original recipe called for grated daikon - a large white radish. I can't find it organically grown at the farmers market so I use bottled horseradish instead.

If you don't have white miso, leave it out and add a little extra salt. The miso is a good addition, though. It has the umami of fermented soybeans and the B12 that is so essential to the vegetarian diet.

The cabbage is salted to draw out excess water so it doesn't make the dressing runny. But if you have a fresh young cabbage and you're going to eat the slaw right away, you can skip this step.

Cabbage and Watercress Slaw

3 cups finely chopped cabbage

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup watercress, without the thick stems

1/3 cup lemon juice

2 tsp white (shiro) miso

4 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp horseradish

Mix cabbage with salt, let it sit 30 minutes, then rinse off the salt and squeeze excess water from the cabbage.

Wash the watercress. Combine with the cabbage.

Whisk together the lemon juice and miso. When miso is dissolved, whisk in the olive oil and horseradish. Season to taste with salt and pepper. It should be well-flavored, but not too tangy.

Pour the dressing over the vegetables. Toss and serve.

Serves 2-3

Butternut Squash Pie

Tracie came up for lunch the other day, and I served this excellent roasted squash free-form pie.

Roasted squash, feta and fresh rosemary combine with caramelized onions to make a filling that is hard to stop eating.

It's a little more work than most recipes I share on this blog, but it can be done in stages, and it's worth it. Leftovers are good the next day, warm or at room temperature.

I served it with tangerine watercress salad and garlicky-kohlrabi roots and greens. A decadent flourless chocolate cake rounded out the meal.

Use your favorite pie crust recipe. I replaced half the flour with whole wheat to give a nuttiness that went well with the sweetness of the roasted squash and onions. The whole wheat flour required extra water in the pie crust, and it was a little messy, but it's a free-form pie so rustic is good.

(I made the crust the day before, refrigerated it overnight, and brought it to room temperature before rolling out.)

Butternut Squash Pie
1 1/2 lbs butternut squash
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
5 tbsp olive oil
1 large red onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
4 oz feta in 1/2 inch dice
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
pastry for 2-crust pie
1 egg beaten with a little water

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Peel and seed the squash. Cut in 3/4-inch pieces. Place on a baking sheet with the garlic cloves. Drizzle with 2 tbsp olive oil and bake 25-30 minutes until tender. Let cool.

Sauté the onion in 2 tbsp olive oil over medium heat about 10 minutes. Stir in balsamic vinegar and cook another 15-20 minutes until onion is caramelized. Remove from heat and add to squash. Let cool.

Stir the feta and rosemary into the squash. Squeeze the garlic from its skins and add to the squash too. Season with salt and pepper.

Roll out the pie crust to a 14-inch circle. I did this on a sil-pat which I then put on a cookie sheet to bake in the oven. Baking parchment would work as well.

Pile the squash mixture on the pie crust, leaving a couple of inches around the edges. Fold the edges over the filling, pleating roughly as you go. Brush the crust with the egg wash to make it a golden brown color.

Bake at 400°F for 30 minutes until crisp and golden.

Serves 6

Potatoes and Cabbage

I found organic russet potatoes at the Hollywood Farmers Market Sunday, and they became the centerpiece of our St. Patrick's Day dinner. With steamed carrots and fresh peas from the garden, it was a festive springtime meal.

Potatoes get a bad rap. If you skip the oozing butter and sour cream, potatoes are actually health food.

They are low-calorie and high-fiber, a combination that makes them excellent protection against heart disease and cancers. They contain phyto-nutrients that lower blood pressure, and a wide array of antioxidants. This recipe combines them with cancer-fighting, colon healing cabbage for an incredibly healthy meal.

But you don't have to tell your family that. Just let them enjoy the meal.

Twice-Baked Potatoes with Cabbage
5 large russet (baking) potatoes
1 tbsp oil
4 cups chopped cabbage (3/4 small head)
1 leek, chopped
1/4 cup water or vegetable stock
1/2 cup warm milk
1 tbsp melted butter
paprika

Scrub potatoes and pat them dry. Pierce several times with a fork. Bake at 425°F until fork tender, about 1 hour.

Warm oil in skillet and sauté cabbage and leek until they begin to wilt, about 2 minutes. Add stock or water, cover and steam until cabbage turns bright green and tender, about 10 minutes. Season with 1/2 tsp salt.

Cut a horizontal slice off the top third of the potatoes. Scoop pulp from potatoes into bowl, leaving a 1/4 inch shell in 4 of the bottoms. Scoop pulp from the tops of the potatoes too.  Discard all the peels but the 4 bottoms. Mash or put the flesh through a ricer. Stir in warm milk. Add cooked cabbage. Season with salt and pepper.

Pile the mashed potatoes mixture into the 4 shells, dividing evenly. Brush the tops with melted butter, then sprinkle with a little paprika. Put back in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the tops are lightly browned.

Serves 4.

(Leftovers reheat well.)

Pain de Campagne Poilane

Last week I experimented with another recipe in Bernard Clayton Jr's book The Breads of France.

It's a country bread made by one of the famous French bakers of the '50s, Pierre Poilane.

The recipe makes one very large loaf, or four 1-lb loaves. I opted for 4 loaves - three baguettes and one round loaf.

This is the third recipe I've tried from the book, and it was the most difficult. I'm not sure I added enough flour - the dough was very soft. And I'm not sure I cooked the loaves long enough - they were a little dense in the center.

However, we thoroughly enjoyed the baguette we ate with the bean stew on Sunday night.

I think it will take some practice to get the feel for this bread dough. Fortunately, even the not-so-perfect experiments taste good.

Cardoons

We bought cardoons at the Hollywood Farmers' Market on Sunday. These are the leaves of giant thistle-like plants. I've never eaten them before, but they are supposed to look like celery and taste like artichokes.

I carried home a huge bunch to try in an Alice Waters recipe for cardoon and cannellini bean stew.

Cardoons can be bitter, stringy and thorny. Needless to say, Larry was a little dubious. But what is life if not an adventure?

I started by removing the leaves and thorns, cutting off the dried-out ends of the stems, and then cutting the remaining stems into 4-inch pieces. Alice Waters then said to braise them in a cup of water and a tablespoon of olive oil and 2 tsp salt 35-40 minutes until tender. That's when it all went down hill. By the time they were tender, the flesh had mostly dissolved. When I tried to pull off the tough strings (like those in celery), I was left with mush.

Into the compost they went.

I am happy to report the bean stew was excellent without them. Here's the recipe, adapted from Chez Panisse Vegetables. If you have good cardoons, cook them as above, cut into 1/2 inch slices, and add to the stew at the end.

Bean Stew without Cardoons
1 cup dried Christmas lima or cannellini beans
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup roasted vegetable stock

Cook beans in water to cover until tender, about 2 hours depending on the age of the beans. Drain, saving 2 cups cooking liquid.

Fry onion, carrot and garlic in olive oil until tender. Add to beans along with vegetable stock and enough cooking liquid to almost cover the beans. Simmer until warmed through.

Serves 4-6.

Still-life for breakfast

We eat bowls of fresh fruit for breakfast every morning. Is there a more beautiful way to start the day?

Braised Turnips

When I want to add a twist to a winter meal of lentils and potatoes, I braise some turnips to serve along side.

Turnips add the taste of a winter stew, yet cook quickly enough to be an easy addition.

First peel the turnips and dice in one-inch pieces. (Save the greens, if any, for another use.)

Melt some butter in a skillet. Toss the turnips in the skillet until coated with butter. Add water to the depth of about 1/4 inch. Cover the pan and cook about 10 minutes until the turnips are cooked and the water is evaporated. Listen to the sizzle - it will tell you when the water is almost gone and the butter is about to burn.

Serve warm as a simple vegetable side dish that will enhance any hearty meal.

Lentils with Garlic and Tomatoes

Lentils make a nice change from beans. They cook more quickly and have a delightful texture. I made this lentil stew the other day and served it with steamed greens, braised turnips, and roasted squash.

Lentils, like all legumes, help lower cholesterol and are full of beneficial fibers.

This recipe comes from A Taste of Africa by Tebereh Inquai.

I plundered my freezer for garden tomatoes I'd frozen last summer (see how I did it here), and also the serrano peppers I'd frozen in the same way. Canned chiles and tomatoes could be used instead.

Lentils with Garlic and Tomatoes
2 tbsp cold-pressed organic canola oil
6 cloves finely-chopped garlic
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 cup brown lentils
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, grated
2 fresh green chiles, seeded and diced
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 cups boiling water

Heat oil in a heavy saucepan and gently fry garlic until slightly brown. Add tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in brown lentils and cook until almost dry. Add salt, pepper, ginger, chilis and lemon juice. Then stir in boiling water. Cover and simmer gently 45 minutes to 1 hour until the lentils are tender. Serve with brown rice.

Serves 4.