Recipes for Asparagus: Steam, Grill, or Roast and Enjoy!

by Anne Maxfield on May 9, 2013

Accidental Locavore Green AsparagusThis time of year, recipes for asparagus are as plentiful as tree pollen (but not quite as excessive as recipes for ramps).  The Accidental Locavore shares recipes and ideas for asparagus (to see how to pick asparagus check out the “How To” section).

No recipes needed to grill asparagus, one of my favorite ways to cook them. If they’re not too big, just toss them in some olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, and throw them on the grill for 5-10 minutes, turn after a couple of minutes and cook until they start to have grill marks, are flexible and cooked through. If you’re working with bigger stalks, you might want to steam them (I use the microwave) for 4 minutes, then toss in olive oil and grill, or skip the steaming and just cook them a little longer over slightly lower heat (charred is not good).

This may sound a little crazy: a great recipe for grilling asparagus is to marinate them in a mayonnaise mix, then grill them. This recipe is adapted from Food & Wine. Feel free to substitute and/or add things like mustard, hot sauce, or sprinkle with something like Parmesan Cheese before or after grilling. Added bonus? The asparagus won’t stick to the grill. 6 servings if you’re not too greedy.

  • ½ cup mayonnaise (make your own-it’s easy and tastes so much better)
  • ¼ cup olive oil (use a good quality)
  • 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed (use the back of a knife)
  • 1 tablespoon sweet, smoked paprika (you can use the hot smoked paprika if you like, or substitute a little of the sauce from chipotles in adobo)
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon cumin (if you don’t have the smoked paprika, just use a little more cumin for that smoky taste)
  • 1 pound thick asparagus, woody bottoms snapped off or cut

Light a grill. In a shallow dish, whisk the mayonnaise with all the other ingredients, except the asparagus. Add the asparagus, toss and let sit for 30 minutes. Grill the asparagus over moderately high heat, turning to cook evenly, until tender, about 5-10 minutes.

Asparagus are also good roasted. Same principle as grilling, just toss in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast them in a 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes until they’re cooked through.

I’ve roasted them with sprinkles of goat cheese and herbs de Provence, ok but not great. Better is some lemon zest, and grated Parmesan (you can add before they go in, or sprinkle on before serving.

When you steam them (4-5 minutes in the microwave and they keep their color), or (steam them in a pan) on top of the stove, to jazz them up a little hollandaise sauce is delicious, decadent and easy to make. Recently I made an “homage to hollandaise” with about ½ cup crème fraiche, 2 tablespoons whole grain mustard and a little squeeze of lemon juice mixed together and served with roasted asparagus. Not quite the guilt of hollandaise.

What’s your favorite recipe for asparagus?

 

 

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6 Ideas for Picking a Great CSA

by Anne Maxfield on May 6, 2013

Accidental Locavore Spring VeggiesWhile you may not realize it, the Accidental Locavore has never formally been a part of a CSA (a CSA, if you’re not familiar with it, stands for community sponsored agriculture and is essentially a pre-paid pot-luck share of the farm’s bounty). Mostly I was spoiled in the beginning by having my own personal farmer/shopper/CSA with my farmer down the road. What he didn’t have (which was very little) I could always supplement with an occasional trip to the Greenmarkets in the city. And last year, when he gave up farming, I transferred my loyalties to Ron at Stokes Farm who would put bags together for me at the market (and has now turned into his Thyme Saver Box). As good as that was, one of the things that was missing, was the pure surprise of just being handed a box (or bag) of veggie goodies. In other words, I had a little too much say in what went into the bags, so there were never really any big food challenges.

This year, we’re up at our Hudson Valley house full time and while I could try to expand my herb garden, my history with growing edible food is not confidence building. In other words, if we were alone in the world, you would not want to be handing me the bag of seeds and a shovel. Better left to the professionals! But which professionals? We’re fortunate to have a lot of really wonderful farms near us and most of them offer CSA’s  These were my criteria for picking one and while yours will probably be different, these can be some guidelines:Accidental Locavore Strawberries

  1. A convenient pick-up place, day and time. You need to think about where and when you want to have an abundance of produce. Do you cook and entertain during the weekends? Or will you use it mostly during the week? When will you have time to wash/prep stuff? Do you have fridge space?
  2. A reasonable share for two people. I hate wasting food and sometimes feel like the kitchen version of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice-cooking as fast as I can, only to have a whole new box show up.
  3. For some, organic is important; I’m more into sustainable practices (you never know what the guy next door is flooding the water table with…), but if organic matters, only look for those farmers.
  4. A farmer/farm referral. Like most business relationships, it’s all about doing business with people you know and like. The CSA that I went with is being run by a woman I know (extra points for being a female farmer) and like, both personally and her agricultural point of view.Accidental Locavore Summer Greens
  5. Giving back to the community. This is more of an extra credit thing, but this farm/CSA is in the middle of an urban area and gives back through education and by providing produce to local families.
  6. What foodstuffs you’re looking for. Since we’ve got a freezer full of beef (from our share from Brykill Farm), we were looking mostly for produce. However there are many that offer meat, poultry and other foods in combination. A few minutes on the Internet should find you just what you need.

Whatever you decide, a CSA is a great way of exploring new foods, while supporting farmers-a perfect combination. But act soon, many of the most popular may be sold out for the season!

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Croque Madame Muffins: A Great Brunch Recipe!

by Anne Maxfield on May 2, 2013

Accidental Locavore Croque MadameAlthough the Accidental Locavore never has white bread in the house, for this recipe from Rachel Khoo’s great book The Little Paris Kitchen, I snuck out and bought a loaf. As with anything this simple, the better your ingredients, the better tasting the results. This is her version of a croque madame, which is traditionally a croque monsieur with a fried egg on top. The sauce will serve 6, it’s up to you to make as many “muffins” as you’d like. It should take you less than an hour from start to finish.

For the mornay sauce:

  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • ¾ cup milk, warmed (you want it lukewarm)
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • ½ teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated if possible)
  • ¼ cup grated Gruyère cheese (plus a little more for sprinkling on top)
  • Salt and pepper (purists would use white pepper here)

For the muffins:

  • 6 large slices white bread, crusts removed (I’ve been using Pepperidge Farms Farmhouse White, which works well)
  • 3 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 2 ½ ounces ham, thinly sliced or cut into strips
  • 6 eggs

Accidental Locavore Bechamel SauceTo make the sauce, melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk hard until you have a smooth paste. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 2 minutes. Gradually add the warm milk, whisking constantly. Put the pan back on the heat, add the mustard and nutmeg and simmer gently for 10 minutes, whisking frequently. The sauce should thicken and be the consistency of thick tomato sauce. Remove from the heat, stir in the cheese and add the salt and pepper. Taste for seasonings and set aside.

To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350°. Flatten the bread with a rolling pin (or a wine bottle) to about ¼”. Brush both sides with the melted butter and place in a muffin pan. Press into place. Then, add an equal amount of ham to each and top with an egg. Add 2 tablespoons of sauce to each and sprinkle with the rest of the Gruyère. Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on how runny you like your eggs. Serve and enjoy!

My verdict: I’ve made these twice for brunch, they’re pretty easy and taste great. Since I currently don’t own a muffin pan, I’ve been cooking them in ceramic ramekins on a cookie sheet. The advantage is that you can have more stuff in each one and use bigger eggs, the disadvantage is the cooking time ends up being close to 30 minutes. We tried using brioche tins, but they were a mess and impossible to clean. The last time I made them, I had great Serrano ham, fresh eggs from my friend Bill and aged Gruyère from Murray’s…pretty spectacular! If you wanted to do them for a bigger meal, a simple salad would go nicely.

Update: Bought a muffin pan and it made a huge difference! Only one thing to think about, you’ll need smallish eggs when you use the muffin tin. Also, having the bechamel sauce made ahead of time makes this done in a half an hour. Added bonus, run the crusts of the bread through the food processor to make fresh bread crumbs!

 

 

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And You Think Your Kitchen is Small: Discover Rachel Khoo

by Anne Maxfield on April 29, 2013

Accidental Locavore Croque MadameAs you may have noticed recently, the Accidental Locavore has become a big fan of Rachel Khoo’s. It started completely by accident, watching the Cooking Channel. If you don’t know her, the show is Little Paris Kitchen and she’s British, living, working and cooking in a tiny Paris apartment.

Watching what she manages to cook, with just a hot plate, a toaster oven and an old le Creuset green cocotte in a kitchen probably no bigger than a square meter, is amazing enough, but the food looks delicious, uncomplicated and like something you’d probably have most of the ingredients for already.

Accidental Locavore Little Paris KitchenJust as we were filling up the DVR with episodes, hoping to replicate some of the dishes, she came out with a cookbook based on the show. Since I’ve been on kind of a no-more-new-cookbooks thing (witness my office overflowing with books), I was trying really hard not to add this to the collection. Then, one of the blogs I follow, Lost in Cheeseland (have to love it for the title alone) had an interview with her and a book give-away. Well, that was a guilt-free way of possibly acquiring the book, so I eagerly commented and days later The Little Paris Kitchen was being fought over by my husband and me.

It’s a charming book and the recipes are easy to follow. When she takes liberties with French classics, it’s always interesting, rather than “why on earth would you mess with that?” Case in point, her Croque Madame Muffins, which I’ve made a couple of times already. She has it under “Snacks” (something very un-French) but I’ve made it for Sunday brunch and it’s delicious! Might even inspire me to go out and buy a muffin tin.

Accidental Locavore Pot au FeuThe other recipe I’ve tackled was the Pot au Feu. Since I had some wonderful, local, grass-fed oxtails and beef shanks from Brykill Farms, it seemed like the perfect use for them. I added cabbage and potatoes, which may or may not be authentic, but sure was tasty!

Prep and cooking times are a big help. The photos are lovely as are her illustrations. There’s a guide to her favorite places in Paris at the end. My only complaint about the book is the way it’s ordered: Everyday Cooking, Snack Time, Summer Picnics, etc. I still prefer to have things grouped into categories  so all the fish dishes are together etc., but that’s a small complaint as the index is comprehensive.

I don’t know about you, but for me the sign of a good cookbook is wanting (and making) more than one recipe in the book. God only knows why I don’t just scan and save the one recipe from the books I have and deaccession the stacks, but I don’t (although it’s an awfully good idea-stay tuned). There are still a lot of intriguing things to try in The Little Paris Kitchen, one of which is the boeuf bourguignon with dumplings made from baguettes. If this stupid weather doesn’t get warmer, it may be on the menu this weekend!

 

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