wendy’s recipe file: parmesan crusted asparagus with balsamic vinegar

As a child, I hated asparagus.  It was one of my father’s foods, and doting wife that my mother was, she served it every day for dinner when it was in season.  She always served it the same way, too:  steamed to an unnappealing mucoid green in a pressure cooker, with no sauce save for maybe a little butter.  As an adult, I’ve come to appreciate asparagus’ subtle charms, eaten in moderation and enhanced with savory seasonings.  I just wrote a column of asparagus recipes (for wedge coop in minneapolis) but here’s yet another one:

PARMESAN CRUSTED ASPARAGUS WITH BALSAMIC VINEGAR

1 pound asparagus, tough ends snapped off and discarded

2 T extra virgin olive oil

1 oz parmesan cheese, shaved into thick strands

sea salt and black pepper to taste

balsamic vinegar

1) Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Lay out asparagus in a single layer on a baking sheet (a jelly roll pan works well).  Toss with the olive oil, coating the asparagus completely.  Spread the parmesan curls over the top half of the asparagus spears.

2) Bake in the top half of the oven until cheese is melted and the asparagus is barely tender (10-12 minutes).  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

3) Serve on a platter.  Drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

 

wendy’s recipe file–braised lamb shanks with parsnips, fennel, and orange peel

I have mixed feelings about lamb.  Sheep are my favorite animal, and they give us so much lovely wool without having to give up their lives.  Yet there are lamb fans in my family, and I have to admit it does taste good and was eaten with regularity by my Middle Eastern ancestors.  Maybe if we just love the sheep and respect its many sacrifices for our pleasure.  (now that’s a predator speaking). If you recoil at using lamb, beef short ribs or pork shoulder will do, though they don’t complement these particular flavors as well.  Any of these braised meats are economical and warming on cold winter days.  (see my previous post on those cold winter days).

 

BRAISED LAMB SHANKS WITH PARSNIPS, FENNEL, AND ORANGE PEEL

6 smallish lamb shanks

healthy splash olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

4 ribs celery, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 T tomato paste

1 cup dry red wine

3 cups chicken or beef broth (I like the kind in aseptic containers)

1 orange

3 four inch sprigs fresh rosemary (use dried if necessary)

3 cinnamon sticks

2 bay leaves

3 fennel bulbs, quartered

4-5 parsnips, cut into three inch lengths

Gremolata:  1/4 cup minced fresh parsley; 1 tsp minced fresh rosemary; 1 clove garlic, minced; finely grated zest of one orange; sea salt

1) Season the lamb shanks with salt and pepper.  In a large Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium high heat.  Suate the lamb shanks until browned on all sides (this may take a couple shifts),

2)  Add the onions, carrots, and celeryand saute until the onion is tender.  Add the garlic and tomato paste and continue cooking for 1 minute.  Add wine, scraping up any browned bits from the pan.  Add the broth and bring to a simmer.

3) Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350.  Peel off the orange peel with a vegetable peeler; reserve.  Arrange the lamb shanks in a large roasting pan.  Pour the broth/vegetable mixture over the meat and add teh orange peeol, rosemary, cinnamon sticks, and bay leaves.  Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil, put in the oven and bake for an hour and a half, turning the lamb shanks every 30 minutes.

4)  while the lamb is cooking prepare the parsnips and fennel.  Add them to the meat after the hour and a half cooking time, seasoning lightly with salt and pepper.  Recover with foil and cook another 45 minutes or so until meat is very tender.  Meanwhile, mix gremolata ingredients together in a bowl.

5) using tongs, remove lamb and vegetables and put on a serving platter.  Remove bay leaf, cinnamon sticks, orange peel, and any woody stems from the rosemary.  Puree the remaining juices in a blender or food processor. Spoon sauce over meat and vegetables.  Sprinkle with gremolata.

recipe of the day: Obama artichoke dip

I couldn’t figure out what kind of food to serve at our election gathering yesterday:  I was a proponent of deep dish Hawaiian pizza (merging Obama’s Chicago and Hawaiian roots) but still can’t convince my husband that pineapple on pizza is a good idea.  I had a craving for hot, creamy, fattening artichoke dip so I settle on this (and it did bring good luck, didn’t it?)

OBAMA ARTICHOKE DIP

1 jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and finely chopped

8 oz cream cheese or goat cheese

one-third cup mayonnaise

one-fourth cup half and half

1 tsp salt

dash pepper

dash hot pepper sauce

three-fourths cup grated parmesan cheese

1 cup toasted bread crumbs

Mash everything except one-fourth cup of the parmesan cheese and the bread crumbs in a food processor or else vigorously by hand.  Put in a small baking dish (Note:  this recipe is small and can be readily doubled) and top with remaining cheese and breadcrumbs.  Bake in a 350 oven until bubbly (around 20 minutes).  Serve with bread and/or crudites.

choose your meal on spaceship earth

Did you know that one day before the election fourteen percent of voters are still undecided?

Consider this analogy (from David Sedaris–it’s not original):

Imagine you are on an airplane flight and the flight attendant comes by with your meal.  She offers you two choices:  the first is chicken, and second is a plate of shit with broken glass.

To be an undecided voter is akin to having that choice and still asking how the chicken is prepared.

There’s been a lot of talk this election about being fair and imbalanced and trying to understand the other fellow’s point of view.  (mostly from the standpoint of latte drinking coastal liberals trying to understand middle American mainstream man–I haven’t seen too much tolerance or even curiosity extending in the other direction).  And yes, I realize that Mc Cain /Palin voters are often kind decent folks who work hard, love their families, and are good friends and neighbors.  Let’s take it a little further and concede that Iraqis and Afghanis are also decent folk and that even the terrorists who crashed the airplanes into the twin towers had hopes, dreams, and mothers that loved them.  Hey, even Hitler was kind to his dog.

I do not question anyone’s shared humanity.  I don’t question most people’s good intentions. But that is a different matter than questioning their choices, and drawing a distinction between them.  Good people can do bad things.  Good people can make bad choices, and the difference in Presidential candidates this election is as clear as the choice between chicken and a plate of shit and broken glass.

So all I can think, on the eve of the election, at the close of the long and destructive era of George W. Bush, is “pray for Obama”.  I hesistate to phrase my feelings that way because that implies that God is on Obama’s side and no doubt a ton of evangelical Christians are certain that Mc Cain and Palin on on their sides.

I don’t think God is on anyone’s side.  i think he/she is probably too busy with all the goings on in the universe to be paying much attention to our little election.  But I do think we’ve been granted this planet at this point in time and the free will to take care of it (or not).  So I pray that people will make the right choice.  That they will vote for unity instead of division, for diplomacy instead of war, for living sustainably as citizens of the earth instead of dominating and destroying.  I pray that people will vote from a place of hope and strength, and not from fear.  Like it or not, we are all stuck together on spaceship Earth.  United we stand. Divided we crash.

Pray for Obama.

That’s a vote for Obama.