Gratin of asparagus

«Wednesday, April 20, 2011Asparagus GratinBy SteamyKitchen / 19 comments»

A couple of years (or it's been 3 years?) launched summer Fest, a garden party in line with weekly recipes, showing what we had that it grows in our gardens and cuisine in our kitchens. Many of you played along in the blogs – and is so much fun now is almost a thing throughout the year.

This spring, we're playing "Spring Fling" with good friends Deb, Editor of the food Web, Margaret far Garden, Diane & Todd of white couple of rice, Matt Armendariz, Shauna of Gluten, Gaby-free girl of this kitchen Gaby, Nicole of pinch my salt and tambiénESPERAMOS! See end of post for links to other recipes for Spring Fling asparagus.

This week's theme is asparagus and my asparagus au gratin dish, a recipe in Cook country Magazine, edition of May 2011. What is different in this recipe is that instead of simply discarding Woody asparagus ends, is used to make a tasty quick stock that will be used to create the sauce recipe.

There is also no cream in the recipe, butter and flour to make a nutty roux to thicken the broth of asparagus in a delicate sauce, light.

On instructions from the Cook (number of May 2011) country by illustrated Cook.

Cut the Woody ends of asparagus.

These will be used to make a quick vegetable stock which will be used in the recipe.

Cook them for 5 minutes in a saucepan Saute or frying pan.

Use skimmer to remove the stems (discard), keep the water in the skillet Sauté.

Now, let's cook the asparagus in this broth that we just fact. Cover and Cook only for 2 minutes until almost tender. Finished it cook them in the oven.

Once done the asparagus, remove with the skimmer. Pour the broth of asparagus in measuring cup: need 2 only 1 cup of the broth.

Dry bread, butter and when the butter melts and begins to bubble, incorporating the flour.

Cook to create a roux.

Pour the broth of asparagus reserved in the pan.

Beat then add cheese.

Pour the sauce in casserole, establish asparagus at the top, sprinkle remaining cheese.

Broil for 6 minutes until asparagus is tender and melted cheese.

Recipe slightly modified country Cook (May 2011 issue) by illustrated Cook.

1 pound asparagus
1 1/2 cups water
salt and pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup purge Monterey Jack cheese
1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1. Place rack in position average higher the oven and preheat the broiler to high.

2 Cut the Woody ends of asparagus outside. In a sauté pan American (with lid), bring the water to a simmer. Add the ends of woody asparagus plus 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the water and cook for 5 minutes. With spatula, remove and discard the ends of woody asparagus.

3 Return water to a simmer. Add the asparagus to the water, cover and cook for 2 minutes, until that only almost tender (very thin asparagus, only needed to cook 1 minute). With the spatula, remove the asparagus and reserve. Pour only 1/2 cup of asparagus in a measuring cup water (discard the rest).

4 Wipe the pan Saute dry and return to the oven to fire medium. Melt the butter in the pan and whisk or spoon, stir the flour. Reduce heat to medium low and cook until thick and chiflado smell, about 3 to 5 minutes. Turn off the heat. Stir in the majority of cheeses (book a couple of tablespoons of cheese to the top of the asparagus). Taste and season with salt and pepper.

5 Pour this cheesy sauce linked in oven pan. Place the asparagus in sauce. Sprinkle remaining cheese of asparagus. Broil for 6-8 minutes. Beginning with parsley. Serve immediately.

Come see more recipes from our participants asparagus launched Spring! If you would like to play to comment with your link to your recipe for asparagus and I'll post.

Food Network healthy eats asparagus 5 forms
By way of garden 12 not for cultivation, cooking and preservation of asparagus
Spring plate of food network Affair: asparagus
Cooking channel asparagus Frittata, the centerpiece of Easter Brunch
A pinch of my salt Gratin of asparagus
What is Gaby cooking weak asparagus and Gruyere cake?
Food2 season Spotlight: asparagus
Steamy cooking asparagus Gratin

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Chinese Stir Fried (Nian Gao) sticky rice cakes

«Thursday, April 28, Stir Fried Rice (Nian Gao) sticky cakes by SteamyKitchen 2011Chinese / no comments»

Last week, in a surprise visit to see family, mother makes a couple of dishes that normally not cooking myself. One of them is this Chinese dish Fried Sticky cake rice noodles (long name!) In China, is called ??? Chao Nián Gao.

The recipe is the hometown of my father's LingBo in China.

Nian Gao is usually eaten for Chinese new year, which means good luck for the coming year. "nian" means year and "gao" high: loosely translated to "every year, can you reach higher and higher".

Nian Gao may also mean cakes of sticky rice that are fried in egg (salted) or fried with sugar (sweet). Shanghainese and Korea (photo TteokGuk) version of nian gao is this recipe, which take the glutinous rice cakes, cut them into ovals 2 inches long, 1 inch thick and stir them fried as noodles.

You can find these noodles of rice cake in Asian markets, either dry form (in the section of dry noodles), in the section of chilled or frozen noodles. MOM likes to buy frozen noodles of rice cake as they keep well in the freezer. They have to be soaked for 2 hours to overnight in water. Buy Chinese, or Korean, are the same.

The rice cakes should be soaked for 2 hours (up to the night)

Dry or canned food of fresh Chinese mushrooms (shiitake) bamboo shoots,

MOM uses green mustard that she had been salted during the night, but I gave the recipe easy instructions for Napa cabbage.

and pork marinated in soy, came from rice, pepper, maize flour and a pinch of sugar.

First, the pig is stir-fried until almost cooked through.

Then add the Chinese mushrooms.

Add in the bamboo shoots.

Then the vegetables.

Stir well.

Season with a little soy sauce. Taste first and add more if necessary.

Add in the drained rice cakes.

Strip! Strip! Strip!

Pour in 1/4 cup of broth of chicken or vegetable broth, cover, activate heat to cook low and let for 2-3 minutes until the rice cakes are smoothed.

Notes on the glutinous rice cakes:
The rice cakes should be gluten-free, but please refer to the packaging.
If dry - submerged in water at room temperature overnight or up to 2 days
If frozen - thaw and immerse themselves in water at room temperature for 2 hours a night
If fresh (in the refrigerated section) - absorb 2 hours in water at room temperature overnight a.

Notes on fungi
MOM likes to use black Chinese mushrooms, as they have a flavor more than shiitake mushrooms fresh which can be found in the refrigerated section. But feel free to use any.

A package of 24 ounce cake nian goh noodles (see earlier notes)
4 dried Chinese black mushrooms (or 8 Fresh shiitake mushrooms)
soy sauce 2 teaspoons
freshly ground black pepper
pinch of sugar
1 teaspoon Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
1 teaspoon cornstarch
8 ounces pork, cut into thin strips
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
6 ounces Chinese cabbage of Napa, strips
A julienne of 6 ounces can short bamboo shoots, drained
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1/4 cup chicken or vegetable stock

1. In a large bowl, soak the cakes of rice according to instructions in the headnotes. If you are using black Chinese mushrooms, in a small bowl, soak the Chinese mushrooms for 2 hours or even overnight up anti-aliasing. If you are using fresh shiitake mushrooms, skip this step.

2. In a medium bowl, soya sauce combine the 2 tsp black pepper, sugar, rice wine, cornstarch together. Mix in pork meat and marinate for 20 minutes or until the night in the refrigerator.

3. When you are ready to Cook, it has all the ingredients ready. Drain the rice cakes. Drain the mushrooms and division into very thin slices.

4. Heat wok or large sauté pan fire. When hot, swirling in cooking oil. Add pork and cook until they are golden and almost cooked through.

5. Add the mushrooms and bamboo shoots, FRY stir for 1 minute. Add the cabbage and stir fry for 2 minutes. Mix the soy sauce.

6 Add the cakes of rice and strip very well. Pour the broth, cover and lower the heat to the faced. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until the rice cakes have been lightly browned and they smoothed. The glutinous rice cakes will be slightly chewy (but not hard chew) similar to cooked pasta to the Dente. Taste and add in soy sauce further if necessary. Serve immediately.

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Peppers and creamy scallops

«Monday, April 18, 2011Creamy scallops and PeppersBy SteamyKitchen / 12 comments»

On Wednesday they are unrealistic in our home day. Not only children get school 2 hours before every week, but Tae Kwon Do classes start at 5: 45 pm. Because the boys take separate classes, which usually do not leave until 7: 30 pm which means dinner should be eaten before class. In the evenings, juggling my own work, homework, cooking, cleaning and, then class is nuts.

This is a sponsored review
by BlogHer and Kraft.

So you can imagine why opt for dinner to 15 minutes so that, as this scallops and peppers dish. Scallops take only 5 minutes to Cook, as they were given hard and rubber in all forms.

The tip to the best scallops is to buy the right type. Search for scallops has been "dry packed": means that they are not sitting in a preservative solution. The track? If the scallops in the market are swimming in aqueous solution, Milky, passing over them. On the other hand, get shrimp and make this same dish.

If you are getting frozen scallops, search for "dry full" in the package and verify the ingredients, which should simply say: "scallops".

Before cooking, pat them very dry and add them to a big, hot skillet. Make sure that you touch not, otherwise it will end "steam" rather than overwhelming.

* Note that the written recipe serves 4, however, my photos below represent kitchen for 2 persons.

Give them lots of space, may want to do this in two batches. 1 1/2 minutes each side is everything you need in this step, to get a good sear.

Remove the scallops, for now, can finish cooking in the sauce.

In the same Pan (is not necessary to clean up), add the onion and pepper and saute for a few minutes.

Then add some wine. glug glug glug.

And here is my secret weapon: Philadelphia kitchen Creme, mixture of Santa Fe. You can use any flavor, including Original, herb & Italian cheese and garlic Savory. He has made from real cream cheese, but specially designed to be used as a ready creamy sauce. It easily melts in the bread and is infused with herbs and spices for the sauce 'a stir,' collections of dinner.

As a substitute for cooking cream, It can use 6 ounces of cheese cream + 1/2 cup vegetable stock + salt and pepper to taste.

Add the scallops go and cook for 1 minute (or 2 minutes) If you use very large scallops.

Throw away the parsley and stir. That's it!

Dinner s ready. Serve over rice or pasta.

This works the ideal recipe for any type of protein - shrimp, beef, chicken or pork - adjust cooking times only. If you are using the smaller scallops, shorten the cooking time and cooked very quickly.

Feel free to use any flavor Creme de cuisine of Philadelphia, I've used mixture of Santa Fe.

If you want to use cream cheese instead of cream cuisine of Philadelphia, substitutions are below.

Serve over rice or pasta.

2 tablespoons of olive oil, divided
1 pound dried scallop sea
1 or 2 red bell peppers, sliced
1 onion sliced
1/4 cup dry white wine
EITHER: A package of 10 ounces of Philadelphia Cooking Creme d'Or [6 oz light cream cheese, softened + 1/2 cup vegetable stock + salt and pepper to taste]
1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1 Pat very dried scallops. Heat a large sauté pan or skillet over high heat. When hot, swirling in only 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the scallops to the pan hot, try to keep them in touch with each other. ' Em give space to sear! Sear 1 1/2 minutes on each side. Remove scallops at the plate.

2. In the same, now vacuum frying pan, add in the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and turn the heat to medium or high. Add the pepper and onions and saute for 2 minutes until anti-aliasing.

3. Pour the wine and let simmer for 1 minute. Mix in the kitchen creme (or replacement of the cream cheese + vegetable + salt and pepper). Bring to boil, stir until sauce is evenly mixed.

4 Add the scallops to the sauce. Cook for 1 minute. Turn off heat, shaking the parsley. Serve immediately.

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Cheesecake truffles turtle

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Monday, April 25, 2011

Turtle Cheesecake TrufflesBy SteamyKitchen / 14 comments »

My husband’s second favorite restaurant in the world is The Cheesecake Factory. We don’t go for the food, we go for the cheesecake. All of them. Okay, well maybe not all of them, unless we’re in a large group, but we always order at least 4 different cheesecakes to share between us.

Two bites out of each and the rest gets packed up for home to enjoy later.

Unless I’m in the front seat of the car with a plastic fork in hand and the to-go boxes on my lap.

Then we’re in trouble….big trouble.

This is a sponsored review
by BlogHer and Kraft.

Especially if one of those cheesecakes is a chocolatey, caramel-y, nutty turtle.

At home, instead of making an entire Turtle cheesecake — because we all know what will happen if I’m alone with cheesecake – I make little cheesecake balls, bites and pops. Each one of these is about 3-bites big, and they are designed for SHARING, as in take-one-pass-it-along. Promise me, no hoarding.

Bites, balls, pops and turtles are the only types of desserts I’ll let myself make. Portion control is not my strong point.

It all starts with Philadelphia Cream Cheese, I use the 1/3 Less Fat version. Make sure it’s softened to room temp.

Mix in graham cracker crumbs – the come in a box and are pre-crumbed. Or you could take the crackers and pulse in your food processor.

Use a melon baller to create evenly sized balls. Freeze for 10-15 minutes to harden.

While the cheesecake balls are freezing, melt the chocolate squares. You can use candy melts as well.

Until the chocolate is fully melted and smooth.

For the rest of the topping, I use pecans and caramel sauce – the kind you buy to pour over ice cream sundaes.

Chop the pecans.

You’ll use a fork to dip the cheesecake balls into the melted chocolate. Let the excess chocolate drip through the tines of the fork.

Top with a few pecan pieces.

Dip your fork into the caramel.

And drizzle the caramel over the cheesecake truffles.

Then sit back, kick your feet up and enjoy just one (you’re supposed to share the rest).

1 package Philadelphia Cream Cheese 1/3 Less Fat
1 package (8 ounces) baking chocolate squares, semi-sweet (or candy melts)
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup chopped pecans, finely chopped
1/4 cup caramel sauce (or melted caramel squares)

1. Combine the cream cheese with the graham cracker crumbs. Use a melon baller to scoop up 1 1/4" sized balls to a wax-paper lined baking sheet. Repeat until you've scooped up all of the cream cheese. You should have about 15 balls. Freeze for 10-15 minutes.

2. While the cheesecake balls are freezing, melt the chocolate according to package directions.

3. Using 1 or 2 forks, dip each cheesecake ball into the melted chocolate. Let the excess chocolate drip away between the tines. Place the chocolate covered balls back on the wax paper on the baking sheet. Repeat for all cheesecake balls.

4. Top each truffle with pecans. Drizzle caramel over each truffle. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving (up to overnight).

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