Asparagus Risotto

I love risotto, especially from this one BBQ joint in Maine. For some reason I just assumed that there was no way I could make risotto at home that would taste as good as that. I don't know why I thought this as I've never even tried to make it before. So going through the cookbooks trying to plan our meals I came across asparagus risotto. Well I love asparagus and I love risotto, so why not.

Turns out it was amazing. I really wanted to just eat the entire pot. Just as good as the restaurant risotto! However, it is kind of a pain to make because you have to sit and stir it constantly and with that cooking and pork in the oven it was very toasty standing there. I will definitely make this again though. Recipe comes from our box of Mediterranean Cooking Recipe Cards

Asparagus Risotto

Ingredients:

• 1 lbs fresh asparagus
• 3 tbsp butter, melted
• 1/2 onion - sliced
• 1 1/2 short grained rice
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 6 tablespoons grated Parmesan

First cut the asparagus up and throw them in a sauce pan with water. Cook for about five minutes drain and set aside.



















Melt the butter in a big skillet over medium heat. Add the onion an let brown.























Meanwhile in a sauce pan heat up your chicken broth so it's at a nice simmer.

Add the rice and half the asparagus pieces to the onion pan. Then stirring constantly add the broth one ladle full at a time. Stir until it's all absorbed and then add the next ladle full.



















Keep doing this until you have used all of the broth. It takes a while.

Once all the broth is used up, stir in 2 tablespoons butter and the Parmesan . Mix well and add the rest of the asparagus.



















We had it with some pork. Very tasty!!

Chocolate Oatmeal Bon Bons

So I've been given the task of typing up some of my Great Grandmothers recipes. I was having a terrible chocolate crisis one evening and decided to try one of her recipes. This is the one I choose mostly cause I had everything on hand, but also cause someone had written "Very Good!" next to it on the recipe card. Turned out that little note was true. These are extremely tasty cookies!

Here is the description that she has on the card: "A rich chocolate cookie, slightly high in the center with a rather unusual texture and flavor due to the chocolate-oatmeal combination. A crunchy, crisp cookie that stores well."

(Sorry for blurry pic :( )




















Chocolate Oatmeal Bon Bons

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup soft butter
• 1/4 cup soft shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cups quick rolled oats.

First mix together butter, shortening, sugar, egg, chocolate, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add this bowl to butter/sugar bowl and add the oats. Cover and chill throughly. Roll into small balls about the size of a walnut.

Place about 2 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet.

Bake for 12 minutes at 350 degrees.

That Eggplant Parmesan

Never make this dish unless you have ten to twelve helpers. I made this dish and I only had two helpers and they were cats. It takes a long time and makes you cranky. You have to make a tomato sauce first unless you have some tomato sauce already. Then you fry all the eggplants. Those steps are boring. The final step you layer the eggplants and sauce and cheese and basil in a baking dish and bake it, which is a lot of fun.



























Then you eat it and it's delicious but you are tired. "Good night," you say, as your eyelids begin
to droop...

Spanish Tortilla

Apparently real Spanish tortillas are not what we call tortillas...in fact they are a potato egg dish thing. Perhaps you knew this already...I didn't! So today we made a real Spanish tortilla.

Spanish Tortilla

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 2 pounds potatoes - peeled and sliced
• 2 onions - peeled and sliced into rings
• 1 roasted red pepper
• 3 oz prosciutto
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp olive oil
  

Cut up potatoes, onions, and prosciutto.























In a pan put 1/2 cup olive oil and heat at medium/low heat. Throw in half your potatoes.


















While these are cooking (for about 15/20 minutes) roast your red pepper. Once roasted, remove skin and chop up.


















Once your potatoes are done cooking (when they are nice and tender) remove them and throw the rest of the potatoes in the pan and cook.

In another skillet heat 2 tbsp olive oil. Add onions and cook for about 15 minutes until brown.


















When potatoes are finished cooking add them to bowl with other potatoes and let cool for a few minutes. Leave the oil in this pan you will use it again in a few minutes.

In a bowl whip up eggs. Add everything to eggs, prosciutto, pepper, potatoes, and onions.


















Heat up oil in the potato pan and add the mixture to it.


















Cook for about 10 minutes til edges are nice and firm. Here comes the tricky part and i have no pictures of this. Slide the tortilla onto a plate. (Make sure your plate is big enough, mine wasn't so a lot of it fell off.) Put skillet upside down over plate. Flip tortilla into skillet so the top is now on bottom and cook for another 4 minutes.


















When finished slide onto plate and let cool to room temperature. Enjoy!


















Nutrition (1/6):
Calories: 399.3 (most likely from all the olive oil which you could probably cut back on)
Fat: 25.7g
Protien: 12.5g
Carbs: 30.8g

PIZZA NIGHT

Here is an insanely easy, yummy, healthy pizza to make and enjoy. The recipe comes from a magazine...possibly cooking light, but I ripped it out and now I can't remember.


Strawberry Pizza Ingredients:

• 1 prebaked pizza crust
• 1 cup cut strawberries
• 1 cup trimmed watercress
• 3 oz goat cheese
• 1 oz parmigiano reggiano
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• pepper
• handful of almonds ( recipe calls for pistachios, but I didn't notice that, despite it having pistachios in the title.... so I used almonds!)

Bake pizza crust all by itself for 8 minutes at 425.

In a bowl mix strawberries, watercress, pepper, olive oil, and lemon juice.

Pull crust out of oven, crumble goat cheese all over it. Pour strawberry mixture on top of that.

Sprinkle parmigiano reggiano and almonds on top and enjoy!

Nirmala's Sindhi Chicken Curry - Sunday Dinner

So I approached this meal with alacrity. After looking through the Indian cookbook I came across this dish that had a bucolic quality. It ended up being simple and delicious. Next time Steve has insisted that to ameliorate the dish we make it spicier.

This recipe is from 1000 Indian Recipes by Neelam Batra.


Nirmala's Sindhi Chicken Curry

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 lbs boneless chicken breasts cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1 tbsp coriander
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper ( I didn't use cause I was out)
• 1 tsp salt
• 3-5 green cardamom pods, crushed lightly to break the skin
• 2 tbsp peeled minced fresh ginger
• 1 cup finely cute cilantro (also out of this)
  
• 2 lg onions
• 4 tomatoes
• 12 scallions (white and light green parts only)
• 1-3 chili peppers ( I used one, Steve would have liked more...too bad for him I say)
• 1 cup nonfat plain yogurt - whisked until smooth.

In bowl one amalgamate coriander, cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper, salt and cardamom pods.


















In second bowl ( I needed two to hold it all) mix ginger, garlic, scallions, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and green chili peppers.



































Add oil to pan. Throw chicken in pan and cook for about five minutes.


















Dump in first bowl (spices). Stir, coating the chicken.


















Dump in second bowl and cook for a bit ( recipe says five minutes, I think I did it a little longer so it could cook down somewhat cause it was exploding out of my pan).


















Add the yogurt a little at a time. I couldn't get a good picture of this cause you have to constantly stir so the yogurt does not curdle.

Let cook for another minute or two, lower heat to low and let simmer for about 30 minutes until it becomes viscous.


















While that's happening lets work on our bread.

Chapati Ingredients:

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup water
• 3-4 tbsp melted butter
• 1 Chabie cat
  

Okay, I tried to make this but it didn't turn out very good. It tasted good, but it didn't look right.

In a bowl put 2 cups flour and stir in with fingers about 1/2 cup water. Stir til dough forms, add more water if needed. Knead dough a few times. Let sit at room temperature for about an hour.


















Separate into 12 pieces.


















In a small bowl put 1 cup flour. Take little dough ball place in bowl of flour and flatten into a circle. The on a floured surface roll it out.



































Heat up griddle or pan. Put dough on pan for about 30 seconds then flip. Once it starts to puff you are supposed to guide the air into the center so it forms into a ball. This is the part I failed at. Once you do this coat with butter and then crumple it all up so the butter gets all in it and gets yummy. Serve these hot.


















Enjoy!


















I'll put the calories in later.


p.s I'm studying for the GREs, hence all the weird words.

:)

Spinach and Goat Cheese Frittata

So the other day at the farmers market I picked up a huge bag of spinach. The spinach ended up sitting in the fridge all week until yesterday when I decided we probably should use it. I also had left over goat cheese from a recipe I had been planning to make but didn't have the time to get to. So I decided to make up a Spinach and Goat Cheese Frittata. Easy and tasty.

Spinach and Goat Cheese Frittata

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 1 tbsp milk
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 small onion
• spinach (a lot)
  
• goat cheese (about 8 oz)

In an oven safe pan heat up some olive oil. Add your onions and saute for a minute or two then add your garlic. Then add your spinach. Cook this for a few minutes til it looks all wilted.

While that's going on put your eggs and milk in a bowl and beat them.

Pour on top of spinach.

Let cook til the edges start to set.

Add half the cheese and then throw in the oven which is pre-heated to 375. Let cook for about 5 minutes. Add the rest of the cheese then let cook for about another five minutes. Pull it out and let set for a minute or two, then ENJOY!



















Nutrition 1/4 of Frittata:
Calories: 270.4
Carbs: 4.1g
Protein: 18.4g
Fat: 20g